A Simple Twist Of Fate
by Jane McCartney
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.
1. Tunnel Of Love

Title: A Simple Twist of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta-reader, Stairway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of many scenes from "Welcome To The Hellmouth", with some changes and characters mixed in the way. The storyline will be more diverted in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And since that moment, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
In every generation there is a Chosen One. He alone will stand against the vampires, demons and forces of darkness. He is the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
"Buffy? Buffy? Come on, sleepyhead, wake up," a gentle voice was calling to her, and the blond-haired girl slowly opened her eyes to find her mother's face staring down at her.  
  
"Just five more tiny minutes," Buffy groaned groggily, slamming her head onto her pillow and shifting slightly on the bed.  
  
Joyce walked over to the other side of the room, opening the curtains and letting the strong daylight enter. "Come on, Buffy. You don't wanna be late for the first day of school..."  
  
Buffy flinched at the sudden hostile light, and eventually got into a sitting position on her bed. "No...wouldn't want that," she whispered crankily, rubbing her eyes viciously with an extensive yawn.  
  
Joyce, now in the kitchen, yelled out to confirm her teen daughter had in fact left the bed. "Buffy?!"  
  
"I'm up, mom!" Buffy replied loudly, as the final vestiges of slumber were only now beginning to fade away from her mind.  
  
Unexpectedly, Joyce's head popped through the doorframe. "One or two eggs?"  
  
"Eggs?" a still-groggy Buffy repeated, a little confused at the sudden reappearance of her mother in her room.  
  
"I'd better make it two. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," the middle-aged woman thought out loud.  
  
"You know, you really have to stop watching Brady Bunch reruns," the blonde girl retorted with a sly grin.  
  
Joyce only threw a pillow at her and announced, "We're leaving in fifteen minutes. I'll drop you off at school, and then I'll head to the gallery."  
  
"Hey!" Buffy, left alone in the room, cried out. But the only answer forthcoming was the distant giggle of her mother, walking away down the hall.  
  
***  
  
Joyce pulled up at the school in her Jeep, and dropped off her only daughter. "Okay, here we are. Excited for your first day?"  
  
"Mom, unless you're Willow, it's humanly wrong to be excited 'cause of school," Buffy answered with a perky grin.  
  
The middle-aged woman sighed, and smiled too. "Have a good time, honey. I'll pick you up at four?"  
  
"Oh no, don't bother, Jesse and Wills will walk me home. You can get in your Buffy-less time, and do something nice. Maybe buy a goldfish? Or organize that big wild orgy, when your innocent teenage daughter isn't at home?"  
  
"I'll keep that in mind," Joyce replied, scowling at Buffy, who only smiled innocently in reply.  
  
"And honey?" the older woman called one last time, making the youth spin and turn back to her. "Mr. Flutie called yesterday. He said you should pass by his office, before your first class begins. So I said I'd drop you off ten minutes earlier."  
  
Joyce revved the engine of the Jeep and sped away to the gallery, leaving Buffy to stand alone in the front of Sunnydale High's exterior. "Peachy," the girl almost snarled with sarcasm, spinning around and heading to the principal's office.  
  
***  
  
"Ah, Buffy, come in," Mr. Flutie motioned to the student with a wave of his hand.  
  
Miss Summers stepped into the office, and closed the door behind her. "Am I in trouble? 'Cause I really just arrived at school a few minutes ago, for the first time in weeks. I'd have, like, broken a record or something, but I'm really sure I didn't do whatever it was this time."  
  
The petite girl paused for a fleeting instant, and frowned confusedly. "Did I?"  
  
"Oh, no, no, absolutely not," the principal quickly replied, but his smile died on his lips when he said, in a suddenly darker voice, the following words: "Not yet, anyway."  
  
Shifting himself in his chair, Mr. Flutie then said in a steady way, "Well, now, Ms. Summers, both of us know how you've gotten yourself into trouble in the past. I was just hoping for us to have this conversation and for me to say that, I hope we can run problem-free this year."  
  
"It wasn't all that bad last year," Buffy said tentatively.  
  
"You burned the school mascot's head at last year's senior prom," he retorted dismally.  
  
"Okay, that was so an accident!" Buffy hurried to defend herself. "You're really missing the big picture here - I mean, it was a really ugly costume anyway, and the doctors said Jamie's hair will start to grow back again in a couple of months..."  
  
Principal Flutie cleared his throat loudly, and then smiled in a coldly placid way that made Buffy's neck rise up in goosebumps. "Now, you see Buffy, any other school might say 'watch your step', or 'we'll be watching you...' - but, that's just not the way we work here."  
  
Buffy was confused. "Yay?" she offered weakly.  
  
The principal smiled one of his fearsome smirks again and continued, seemingly unaware of the girl's brief interruption. "I'm willing to, you know, just let that incident pass and leave it out of your permanent record, if you'll do the school and the Sunnydale community a little favor. It's actually a meritorious duty, and you shouldn't, by any means, look at it as a punishment of any sort..."  
  
***  
  
"Punishment? Why would I ever look at this as a punishment?" Buffy snorted sarcastically, eyeing some students pointing at her and laughing, nudging the person by their side and giggling helplessly.  
  
Balancing herself a little clumsily on a pair of rollerblades, Buffy just kept wheeling along Sunnydale High's courtyard with a cranky expression. As she was dressed in a white blouse that, in phosphorescent red letters, had the legend 'Safe sex is cool' written thereon.  
  
And, in smaller letters beneath that, the message 'To be cool too, wear condoms'. Plus, as if all that wasn't enough, there was a matching red cap.  
  
In the midst of her thoughts of just digging a big hole in the ground and diving into it headfirst to end the humiliation, Buffy suddenly realized that she no longer had any control over her blades. She started to flail about helplessly, while the crowd of students smartly got out of her way.  
  
In the hope of avoiding a bump into a more distracted unfortunate student, the blond-haired girl started to shout, "'Scuse me, comin' through, pardon me, 'scuse me, whoa! 'Scuse me, not sure how to stop! Please move, whoa, 'scuse me..."  
  
And that was when she saw him for the first time.  
  
Wow, Buffy thought, equally mesmerized and taken aback by the new boy's unexpected mighty effect upon her; as she felt, from head to toe, her whole body being enveloped by a strong shiver.  
  
It wasn't like he was exceptionally handsome, but he was undeniably cute, and plus, there was surely something special about him. His longish brunette hair was scattered all over his head in a slightly disordered way, with a few locks charmingly hanging over his face.  
  
The boy's body was lanky but, even covered by the long-sleeved black shirt and jeans, easily seen to be well-developed. To complete his cool, slightly 'rebel-without-a-cause' look, he had a red backpack coolly hanging loose on one of his shoulders.  
  
His eyes, however, were what had really drawn her into him. Many shades of brown colored the intense warm orbs, and for an instant Buffy felt the need to suppress a shiver.  
  
He seems like someone who's seen too much, she thought vaguely, and somehow a sudden sadness overwhelmed the blonde during that millisecond.  
  
For some odd reason that was beyond anything the suddenly confused girl had felt before, Buffy simply knew she had fallen head over heels in love with the mysterious newcomer - and the subsequent crash, causing a worried twist in her heart, was a pretty hard one.  
  
It was in this short-lived moment that Buffy failed to notice that she was heading directly for the stair railing, ungracefully crashing into it and falling beneath it, grunting in pain.  
  
A red-haired girl walked up to her, and had to step high to avoid tripping over her legs.  
  
"I'm okay. I don't feel like shooting myself right now," Buffy groaned, but felt her heart do a loop-the-loop when the new student looked at her and smiled.  
  
For a second, it seemed that the boy would walk over to help her, but another hand was stretched out first and Buffy accepted it, getting up.  
  
"Willow!" Buffy chirped, almost gasping in relief for the sight of her childhood best friend. "You're so much the person I wanted to see."  
  
"Me?" Willow cringed in response. "Why? You saw me yesterday. And the day before. You didn't see me the day before the day before yesterday, 'cause you had that thing to do with your mom in the gallery, but you saw me-"  
  
"Will? I really got the point," Buffy announced, cocking an eyebrow at her petite friend.  
  
"Oh," Willow blurted out gloomily, but grinned when the realization hit her. "Oh, oh - gotcha! I was babbling again, wasn't I?"  
  
"I'll stick with talking too fast to be humanly comprehensible," Buffy opted neutrally, offering one of her perky grins to the redhead.  
  
It was then that Willow really noticed the blond-haired friend for the first time, eyeing her upside down.  
  
"Don't ask," Buffy advised, as they walked to recline over at a nearby tree. Buffy's steps, due to the heavy rollerblades attached to her feet, were high and somehow awkward, and she had to push her legs to make it through to the next step.  
  
Willow nodded. "It could've been worse," the redhead offered tentatively, in her typical shy voice. "You could've missed Mr. Sandman's first English class, or, or missed the math test or something."  
  
Buffy Summers just stared at Willow Rosenberg.  
  
"Sometimes I'm odd and strange," Willow frowned under Buffy's blank look. "Uh, but, that would be like, second on the list. Really," the petite redhead amended, and her friend sighed deeply, already lacing up her tennis sneakers that she had taken out of her backpack.  
  
Removing the cap and blouse and holding the heavy rollerblades in her hand while they got up and started walking toward Sunnydale High's classrooms, Buffy looked over her shoulder when a cheery voice called behind the two girls.  
  
"Hey, hey!"  
  
"Hey Jess, what's what?" Buffy replied equally cheerily, while the three friends entered the academic halls.  
  
"Don't ya know? There's a new dude in town!" the brunette youth said happily.  
  
"Yeah, I saw him," the blonde replied, slightly absent-mindedly. Quickly snapping out of her trance, she turned to Willow with a conspiratory smile. "Pretty much a hottie."  
  
Jesse rolled his eyes with a loud snort, and Willow giggled before adding, "I heard someone was transferring..."  
  
"So?" Buffy asked, a little more eagerly than her intention.  
  
"So?" Jesse, confused, retorted.  
  
"What's the sitch, what do ya know about this new kid on the block?" she said, now purposefully looking more detached.  
  
The tall youth shrugged. "New dude."  
  
"Well, you're certainly a font of nothing," Buffy snorted, as the three friends walked in for the first class of the year.  
  
***  
  
Okay, it'll most likely be a three-chapter thing, and really, the summary makes sense. It'll soon. Well, what do ya think about it? Let me know and review! 


	2. Come September

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
The bell rang loudly and, even though it was only the first class of the year after several weeks of summer break, most students cheered happily at the noisy chime.  
  
The academic halls rapidly got crowded with hordes of students stampeding out of the classrooms, all of them speaking loudly and all at the same time.  
  
Jesse headed to his next class, which wasn't the same as Buffy's and Willow's. Waving goodbye to their tall friend, the two girls stopped in front of their lockers.  
  
"Wow," Willow blurted out, looking a little dazed while she opened her padlock with the appropriate combination of numbers. "I can't believe how much I missed that," she then said, motioning to the room where they, not so long ago, had had Mrs. Dawson's first biology class of the year.  
  
The petite redhead turned to the blonde with a brisk grin. "Wasn't it really cool when Mrs. Dawson started to talk about the medulla oblongata, and then she drew that sketch with its functions in the nervous system, and gave those shiny gold stars to the people with the most organized notes?"  
  
"Medulla oblongata? Isn't that like, the name of that new band that was on MTV last night?" Buffy frowned, absently piling up a heap of books in her locker.  
  
"But I feel kinda giddy, though. We're like sophomores now, ya know? It feels like there's this whole new spurty wave of knowledge waiting for us," Willow said enthusiastically.  
  
"Hey! I didn't win a golden star," Buffy thought out loud in half- indignation as the realization hit her, closing her locker and clinching shut its rusted padlock.  
  
Lost in her thrill over the semester's start, Willow didn't seem to acknowledge the blonde at her side for the second time. "Like we've finally transcended to this brand new level of wisdom, and the future looks bright and shiny and full of promise and-"  
  
Willow trailed off when a group of guys that looked a couple of years older than them speedily walked down the hall, provoking a rowdy commotion in their yelling and getting the attention of some students, that just cheered along their enthusiasm.  
  
"Yeah, seniors at last, dude! Let's go pick up some girls and beers - and then I say we go out and PARTY!" one of the senior students burst out cheerily.  
  
The others got together, forming a circle and cheering loudly, "Beer, beer, beer!"  
  
The 16-year-old girls' eyes followed the noisy group, until they turned a corner in the halls and disappeared, subsequently locking eyes for an odd moment.  
  
"They, uh, seemed really excited about the future too," Buffy frowned, a little hesitant.  
  
"See? It's the wave of knowledge thingy. It's, uh, really widespread," Willow jabbered unconvincingly.  
  
"Oh," the petite blonde blurted out, nodding encouragingly. "Widespread learning. Like knowledge sprouting little wings and flapping into your brain, with the help of a little invigorating booze. Gotcha."  
  
"BEER!" a loud, last cheer was yelled from the distant group, and a silence overpowered the two girls for a moment.  
  
As if by unspoken agreement, both girls snapped out of the somehow awkward moment to tastefully change the subject completely. "Did you know we've got a new librarian too?" Willow commented off-handedly.  
  
"Yeah, I heard that. I think his name's Gyles or something," Buffy replied.  
  
"Giles," Willow corrected her. "He just started. He was a curator at some British museum, or, or The British Museum, I'm not sure. But he knows everything, and he brought all these historical volumes and biographies, and am I the single dullest person alive?"  
  
"Probably," Buffy answered with a hint of mocking and a cocked eyebrow, seeming to give it a prolonged thought.  
  
The red-haired petite girl shrugged and then said, "I guess we could check it out. I mean, I thought I'd pay a visit to the library - in comparison to our old one, this is like, the Queen of libraries! It's way bigger, even when the archives are still kinda scanty, but we've gotta go there!" she confessed, with a hint of uncontrolled glee.  
  
"The library?" Buffy repeated, seeming slightly taken aback at the redhead's babbling eagerness.  
  
Willow stopped and repeated slowly, half-uneasily, half-mockingly. "Library. Where the books live?"  
  
"Oh, that dusty old room? I thought that was the place where students went to make out," Buffy retorted with light sarcasm, cocking once again an eyebrow. "Actually, I was trying to say I'll have to pass. No library time for Buffy, 'cause Mr. Flutie said he wanted me to be at his office when class was over and-"  
  
"Oh please, spare me. Like Little Miss Bully and making out were compatible to exist in the same sentence," a mocking voice sneered sarcastically behind them, cutting off the blonde.  
  
Circling the brunette, who was standing imperiously in the middle of the impeccably-dressed group, a gaggle of girls giggled.  
  
"Cordelia," Buffy hissed, the corner of her lips twisting in a hostile smirk. "Feel free to choke on your own vomit, and die within the next five minutes. And if it's painful? An extra yay on my part."  
  
Cordelia Chase locked hostile eyes with her, and then eyed Willow with a sideways disdainful glance. "Nice dress, Willow. Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears."  
  
"Uh, oh, my mom picked it out," the girl responded shyly, lowering her eyes and obviously embarrassed.  
  
"No wonder you're such a guy magnet," the brunette scoffed.  
  
"Cordelia, why don't you just get lost?" Buffy walked in the front of her friend, and getting threateningly closer to the taller girl.  
  
"Hey, don't violate her personal space, you geek!" Harmony advanced one step and half-whined bitchily, turning to Cordelia and adding, "Now you'll have to, like, disinfect your clothes!"  
  
Buffy retreated a step away from Cordelia, and rolled her eyes. "Harmony, do us all a favor and for once in your life, have an original thought. Who knows?" she smiled with sugarcoated sarcasm and crossed her fingers, hopeful-looking. "Maybe, your head will explode."  
  
"Oh, you, you big fashion reject!" Harmony tried to curse Buffy as a rebuttal.  
  
"That's it? That's the best you can do?" the petite blonde snorted, turning to her red-haired friend. "She just doesn't seem able to get on board with the whole original thought idea, does she?"  
  
Despite the intimidating eyes of the popular girls upon her, Willow smiled hugely at the words; still, she kept a minimum safe distance though, hiding slightly behind Buffy.  
  
Cordelia rolled her eyes, and sighed deeply. "C'mon, girls, charity time's over. My skin's already kinda getting itchy from the nerd-y atmosphere here anyway..."  
  
Spinning on her heel, the brunette girl walked down the hall, as her sheep followed her eagerly.  
  
And, turning one last time, already some feet away, Cordelia sent a feigned grin at Buffy. "By the way, that red cap you were wearing earlier? Very nice," she said sarcastically and walked away, as the loud, chortling laughs of her friends erupted into the hall.  
  
***  
  
On her way to Principal Flutie's office, Buffy opened her bag, rummaging through it to confirm that she'd have the right books for her next class when a strong bump made her loose the grip on the bag, spilling its contents onto the floor.  
  
"Oh! Sorry!" the blonde apologized quickly.  
  
"That's okay," the girl she had crashed into answered nonchalantly, turning around and walking away, her arm linked with a boy's into the hallway.  
  
"Way to go, Summers!" a passing-by student exclaimed loudly, and some laughs of a brief gathering of students around her followed the shout.  
  
"Oy," Buffy whispered after a snort and a sigh, looking down at the mess.  
  
A student who had just left Mr. Flutie's office, and had witnessed the collision rapidly crouched by Buffy's side, helping the girl to gather her things.  
  
Too stunned to speak at first, Buffy felt her heart starting to race to an almost impossible speed inside her chest. The warm, intense brown eyes, staring at her in that charming, unique way.  
  
Right. Into. Her. Soul.  
  
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Shush, heart! Not really the time to be Goofy Buffy here!   
  
A little shaky inwardly, Buffy pulled a lock of hair behind her ears, fighting to keep her coolness factor intact. "Thanks for having me," she said, but noticed her words and babbled quickly, "Helping me! Thanks, uh, for helping me."  
  
Gee, way to go, Summers! Coolness factor's death, 10:01 a.m.! the girl rebuked herself, mentally slapping her forehead.  
  
The boy's following smile melted her insides. "Not a problem... okay, that'd be the part where you tell me your name."  
  
"Oh! Buffy. Name's Buffy Summers," she elucidated with a smile.  
  
"Xander," he retorted. "Is, is me. My name, that is. I'm, uh, I'm new here. But all the odd looks that everybody's giving me as if I was some green little man make it pretty much obvious. I guess you don't get a lot of new kids in small towns and please someone tell me when did I start to be such a babbling idiot?" at that, he frowned.  
  
The petite blonde chuckled. "I'd hafta say after the little green man thing." After a brief moment of silence, that Buffy noticed with some surprise wasn't an odd but a comforting one, she added, "But don't worry. I've got a friend that does it all the time too."  
  
Xander smiled. "Think I should be going now. Being late to your first classes isn't exactly gonna make you the teacher's pet for the rest of semester," he said, seeming a little uneasy.  
  
"Right, uh, I'll see you around then... maybe at school... since we, ya know, both go there and all," Buffy replied.  
  
"Sounds like a logical plan," the dark-haired boy replied with a charming grin, and before walking away, looked at the blond-haired teenager one last time. "It was nice to meet you."  
  
"I also think so. I mean, meeting you, not me," Buffy retorted, not for the first time that day wishing she could just dive into a hole and permanently drag the cover behind her. "It was nice to meet you too," she amended more lucidly.  
  
Her hazel eyes locked with his dark ones for a brief instant that seemed to last for a lot longer than its actual duration, as that flush of adrenaline that was starting to become too familiar at the new boy's sight, Xander. His name's Xander, she corrected mentally, made her heartbeat immediately accelerate.  
  
Xander started down the hall after that, and Buffy, standing utterly still, groaned to herself. "We both go to school? Very suave. Very not pathetic."  
  
And that was when she noticed the object lying on the floor.  
  
"Hey!" the blonde called, picking it up and eyeing it curiously. "Hey, I think you dropped your... stake!" she completed with a frown.  
  
"The only thing I can think is that you're building a really little fence," Buffy said to herself a little uneasily, still with her eyes glued at the pointy piece of wood.  
  
Xander turned back and rejoined her, suddenly seeming nervous. "Ha, no, um, a-actually it's for self-defense. Everybody has 'em in LA. Ya know, pepper spray is kinda girly and all..."  
  
The 16-year-old boy, without uttering another word, grabbed the stake and sped off down the hall, leaving a confused Buffy behind.  
  
"That was... weird," the girl frowned, and walked away.  
  
"Pepper spray? Nice going, Harris. Very not suspicious," the dark-haired teen, walking in the opposite direction, rebuked himself at last.  
  
*** OK, sorry I took so long to update. Initially, this would be just a two- chapter thing, but I think it'll be a little longer. As long as you people keep sending me your reviews! (Low shot, I know...) Anyway, please, review me! 


	3. New Kid On The Block

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
The teacher wrote the three words on the board, and subsequently underlined them noisily with the chalk. The caption read, 'The Black Death'.  
  
"It's estimated that about 25 million people died in that one four-year span. But the fun part of the Black Plague is that it originated in Europe, how?"  
  
Willow was taking notes in her notebook, as was Xander who was seated by her side.  
  
"As an early form of germ warfare. If you'll look at the map on page 63 you can trace the spread of the disease into Rome, and then north..."  
  
Xander looked around, a little lost. And the slender red-haired girl, noticing he didn't have the book, promptly offered to share hers with him.  
  
"Thanks," the dark-haired teen smiled gratefully.  
  
"And this popular plague led to what social changes? Steve?" the teacher asked a kid at random.  
  
"Ah..." the required student started doubtfully, and looked immediately relieved when the bell rang to announce the end of the class. He clasped hands with a friend, and got up to leave with the rest of students.  
  
"I'm Xander," the dark-haired youth introduced himself to the red-haired girl in the middle of the noisy commotion, pulling his backpack onto his shoulder as they stood up.  
  
Willow was about to respond, but then a pretty brunette girl walked over them "Willow! I was just thinking about you."  
  
"You w-were?" Willow asked uneasily.  
  
Cordelia Chase smiled shark-like, "Yeah, I just heard they were starting to cast for a new sequel to 'Revenge of the Nerds', and for some reason your name just popped into my head!"  
  
Willow's look fell to the floor, as she started to jabber shyly, "I, uh..."  
  
"I, uh..." Cordelia mocked with a bored expression, rolling her eyes. "What about actually saying something, like - you've somewhere else to be?"  
  
The petite redhead looked around, and then back at Cordelia. "Oh!" she blurted out when the realization hit her, and hurriedly turned to walk away from Xander and Cordy.  
  
"Hi! I'm Cordelia Chase," the girl turned back to Xander, who was watching the redhead leave for a moment, and pulled a lock of silky dark hair behind her ear. Hmm, hello creamy goodness... the cheerleader unconsciously licked her lips.  
  
"Xander Harris," the dark-haired youth replied to her wide grin with a small, somehow reluctant one, staring right at the brunette girl at last.  
  
"I didn't mean to be nosy and all, but I noticed you were bookless during the class. And if you're looking for a textbook of your very own, there's probably a few in the library," she elucidated helpfully, and smiled flirtatiously next. "Or you could just hang out with me instead," her voice, with a very slightly singsong tone, was sugary sweet and a more than a little insinuative.  
  
"Oh," Xander blurted out, deciphering her not-so-subtle flirting. "I guess I-"  
  
"Excellent! You know, you've made a very wise choice!" the brunette grinned wildly, linking her arms with the boy's and almost dragging him along with her.  
  
"I did?" Xander frowned, a little confused, letting the tall girl lead him into the hallways.  
  
As they moved down the hall, they looked like the stereotypical image of an American high school teenage couple - and more than a few people watched, figuring that Queen C was intending to get her hooks into the new kid in town.  
  
"Come on, I'll show you around," Cordelia offered. "You're from Hemery, right? In L.A.?" Without receiving an answer, she added, "Oh, and by the way, you don't need to do the do-gooder act here in Sunnydale."  
  
"Do-gooder act?" Xander repeated, obviously lost.  
  
"Duh, ye-ah! Look, I know the whole politically correct thing is in fashion with the big city types nowadays, but we're different here in Sunnydale," Cordelia explained, and paused to search for her next words more carefully. "It's more like... being hypocrisy-free. I mean, we're cool and they aren't, and that's not like our fault. Which means you can pretty much skip the fuzzy and warm act, with all the nerds on campus."  
  
Xander took a minute to take the information in, as Cordelia smiled at him. "So how are you finding Sunnydale so far? Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think. As much as I'd kill to live in L.A. - I mean, that close to that many shoes? Gee, what a hard choice. But see, there's some advantages to living in small, oh-so-boring towns..."  
  
"That's good, I guess," the boy replied, somehow awkwardly.  
  
"That being said... Sunnydale's got me," Cordelia said, shifting her weight and biting her lips softly - and for the first time, a hint of insecurity, a trace signal most would probably overlook in her bitchy personality, was suddenly visible in the girl's character through Xander's eyes.  
  
The male Slayer didn't know exactly how to react to this, so he only grinned back. He wasn't sure yet what to make of Cordelia Chase.  
  
But as he looked at the brunette hanging off his arm, Xander couldn't help thinking this was exactly the type of girl he'd have pursued straightaway, in his jock days back in L.A. She seemed smart, sure of herself, and of course had a face and body to die for.  
  
A million years ago, in a time before the darkness had come over his life, the teenager probably would have been planning how to get her into bed by now.  
  
Nowadays of course, after what had happened one night from disregarding Merrick's orders and advice about a girl named Nicole, Xander knew better.  
  
"Anyways," Cordelia quickly changed the subject, adopting her imperious presence once again as the two teens entered another of Sunnydale High's halls. "You wanna fit in here, the first rule is: know your losers. Once you can identify them all by sight," she said, glancing towards Willow, "they're a lot easier to avoid."  
  
Xander let out a nervous laugh as Cordelia looked at the redhead again, who had gone through a door at the end of the hall, looking back at the two brunettes before continuing on.  
  
"Willow Rosenberg, bookworm type. Nerd from head to toe," Cordy started to categorize, snapping her glance to another passing-by student. "Warren Mears. Well, basically, just another harmless loser. Passes his worthless time with some sci-fi things like robots and stuff - need I say more?" she snorted.  
  
That was when a short, dark-haired boy crossed their path, and Cordelia frowned helplessly. "Jonathan Levinson. Well, just... look at him. Capisce?"  
  
They kept walking through the halls, seeing more of the so-called nerds of Sunnydale High. Xander seemed utterly bored from Cordelia's endless chitchat, till the moment the mention of a familiar name made him snap his attention back to the pretty brunette.  
  
"And by the way, you should totally avoid one Buffy Summers. She's red- colored in the area of social reputation danger. She's like, a complete negly - and pos! She's always starting trouble, and almost got kicked out last year for burning the mascot's head at the prom," Cordelia said.  
  
At the same time she was finished, something caught Xander's attention in a nearby mural. "Isn't that her?"  
  
In the midst of several pictures, which included school athletes receiving medals, principals with honor students, some Prom Kings and Queens of different years and other important moments in Sunnydale High's history, there was a photo with the high school's football team cheerleaders.  
  
Standing at the apex position, Cordelia and Buffy were cheerleading side by side, both looking a couple of years younger than they were today.  
  
"I said we were hypocrisy-free, but I never said we don't make mistakes," Cordelia clarified, looking a little embarrassed at his stare. "But thankfully, we detected her aptitude for nerdness in time. Buffy started to hang out with Willow and Jesse - can you say, losers? If that's not a social life death sentence, I don't know what is. She left the squad shortly after."  
  
"You kicked her out just 'cause of that?" Xander asked, having a hard time masking his indignation at the thought.  
  
Cordelia was a little taken aback by the snap. "Nuh-uh, she kicked herself out, actually. And a week before the opening game of the year, might I add! Anyway, what are you, some sort of savior for the Sunnydale nerd population?"  
  
"Look, Cordelia, I really have to go. Uh, thanks for showing me around and all. It was certainly... enlightening," Xander opted to say, and turned to leave, leaving a dumbfounded Cordelia behind.  
  
"Oh, God, I should've seen it sooner. My nerd radar is really getting rusty," the brunette girl frowned, amazed with her inability to see the obvious and cursing her initial hormone attack.  
  
***  
  
Xander entered the library and looked around, noticing the room looked deserted. "Hello?! Anybody here?" he called out.  
  
The boy advanced a few steps in and shouted again, "Any living soul around?" At that, he frowned and thought about his choice of words. "And if you're an undead American, I'd probably like to know it too," he whispered to himself.  
  
Xander looked at the counter, and his sideways glance saw a newspaper clipping with a picture that had been circled in red. The caption above the picture read 'Local Boy Still Missing'.  
  
And that was the moment that Giles chose to come up behind him, tapping Xander on the shoulder and making him spin around.  
  
"Yah!" Xander cried out, startled by the sudden touch. "Guess anybody's here after all," he then grinned lamely, more recomposed.  
  
"Can I help you?" Giles asked softly.  
  
"Uh, yeah, I was looking, well, for some books. Then it seemed kinda obvious to head here, so here I am. I'm new," the dark-haired boy clarified his status.  
  
"Mr. Harris?" the middle-aged British man then asked, his voice suddenly altered from polite to containing a certain streak of alertness.  
  
"Good call! Guess I'm the only new kid here today, huh?" Xander retorted.  
  
Giles headed behind the counter. "I'm Mr. Giles. The librarian. I was told you were coming," he informed the boy.  
  
Xander took a list out of his backpack, analyzing it item for item. "Great, then! So, um, I'm gonna need 'Perspectives on 20th Century-"  
  
Xander was sharply interrupted by Giles. "I know what you're after!"  
  
"Really? Well, great, 'cause I didn't even check the whole list yet... wow, ya know, they weren't that caring with the students in my old school and..."  
  
The youth trailed off when Giles, wearing a big grin, pulled out a heavy, dusty-covered book with the word 'VAMPYR' written in gold leaf in the front cover. Xander looked up at him, with an uncertain gaze.  
  
"That's not what I'm looking for," the young man said, the temperature of the room suddenly chilly.  
  
"Are you sure?" Giles inquired.  
  
"Oh yeah, I'm way sure," the boy reassured him at once.  
  
"My mistake," a confused Giles apologized, seeing Xander spin around and hurriedly leaving through the library door.  
  
***  
  
Two of the cheerleader girls were discussing the aforementioned Xander Harris, when Cordelia burst into the locker room.  
  
"The new kid? He's majorly cute, but he seems kinda weird to me. What kind of name is Xander, anyway?" Aphrodisia asked, resting the palm of her hand on her chest.  
  
"Oh, hey Cordy!" the girl then called, acknowledging the brunette's entrance immediately.  
  
"Cordy, hi!" Aura, the other girl, saluted her too.  
  
"Aura, Aphrodisia, hey!" Cordelia greeted back. "Were you talking about the new guy? Well, newsflash - he's a loo-ser!" she said in a singsong whisper, conspiratorially. "I mean I talked to him, and he totally blew me off. I swear, *he* blew *me* off!"  
  
"He didn't," a shocked Aura replied.  
  
"And," Cordelia said with a brief pause before continuing, "He kinda almost started to go all Protector Guy with that Buffy loser and her groupies! I mean, it doesn't matter if he was the quarterback in his old school, there *are* limits!"  
  
"Yeah, totally," Aphrodisia agreed, working on the combination of her gym locker. "And besides, haven't you heard the rumors already? The gossip in study hall is that his folks are pretty much close to Jack Daniels, if you know what I mean, and that he got kicked out from his school and had to move to Sunnydale with his younger brother to live with his uncle."  
  
"And there's more," the other airhead continued. "I heard that he'd started to become a serious trouble-maker. He left the football team during the middle of the season and, do you even know *why* he was expelled from his old school? He *burned down* the gym!"  
  
"Humph," Cordelia snorted. "That surely explains a lot about his weirding out on me, when I alerted him about Buffy Summers. Background similarities - a neg protecting his own kind, much?"  
  
"Total negly," Aura agreed, working on the padlock of her locker. "Well I heard from Blue, and she said that-"  
  
The girl's voice got caught in her throat when a dead body fell out of the locker, onto her arm. Timorously, Aura exchanged a look with Cordelia and Aphrodisia; and the three girls started to scream loudly, as Aura stepped back and let the body fall to the floor.  
  
*** Hey there, all of you guys! So, I said this would be short, but I'm kinda letting myself get too excited... So, tell me what you think! And yes, the summary will make sense. I know I indicated Buffy as the Slayer, so there lays a mistery... Two slayers? Something different? Review, wait and see! 


	4. Lovers and Friends

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
Willow was seated on a bench in front of a wall taking out her lunch, when Xander approached her. "Uh, hi. Willow, right?" the boy asked.  
  
The computer nerd looked up, her ocean-green eyes wide and frightened. "Why? I-I mean, hi! Uh, did you want me to move?"  
  
Inwardly a little surprised at that reaction, Xander still didn't hesitate externally when he replied good-naturedly, "Why don't we start with, "hey, I'm Xander", and, uh, then let's segue directly into me asking you for a favor," the youth paused for a second, sitting next to her. "Well, promise ya one thing: it doesn't involve moving, but it does involve hanging out with me for a while."  
  
"Oh!" Willow blurted out in surprise. "I, I can do that. I guess. No, I can't," she amended swiftly all of a sudden, shaking her head and snapping her gaze towards her companion, confused. "Aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?"  
  
Xander furrowed his brow for an instant. "Well, sorta," he said frugally, remembering with a hint of amusement the ending of that particular conversation in the hallway.  
  
And then, something hit Xander. "I can't do both?" he questioned her curiously.  
  
"Not legally," Willow retorted, and subsequently frowned. "Do you want me to move now?"  
  
Xander chuckled, a little nervously. "No, no, I want you to stay. I mean, I want you to do anything you feel like doing. Even if that's simply hanging out with me, or dancing the macarena, or, uh, eating spicy onion chicken wings or whatever..."  
  
Willow wrinkled her nose and smiled shyly, still a little uncertain but more relaxed now. "I can do this. Not the macarena or the onion thing, I mean." After a moment of thought, she added mostly to herself, "Maybe I'll be in the mood for the chicken wings later..."  
  
"Good," Xander smiled at that and continued after a brief instant of silence, "Then I'd guess that'd be my opening to say thanks for sharing your book with me during class. So, thanks."  
  
"Oh, that was so not a problem," Willow replied with a real smile. "But you can look for your own in the library. I m-mean, not that I can't share mine with you again 'cause I think you'll drool or wrinkle the pages or spill something on it. It's not like I'm Obsessive Girl and will accidentally hit you with the eraser if you stick your gum on the Winston Churchill picture. Really."  
  
"That bad, huh?" the amused boy asked.  
  
"Ya-huh!" Willow eagerly agreed, and mocked a cheesy and sour British male accent. "It's like: 'what did you do today, Mr. Churchill? You may very bloody well have that answer, my friend; I sent some ships to the north coast, reviewed some war numbers and bought this lovely yucky-pink wig. You know, just the usual...'"  
  
Xander grinned at that, suddenly feeling for a second as if the two of them were long-time friends. "Yeah, I'm sure yucky-pink wigs were fashionable during the Second World War. It's just those darn stupid history books keep forgetting to tell us about it; ya know, politics..."  
  
Feeling the very unvoiced feelings of the dark-haired boy, Willow chuckled and Xander did so too, the bonds of friendship beginning to be built.  
  
Jesse suddenly arrived in front of them. "Is everything okay here, Will?" his voice protective and containing some hostility.  
  
"Jesse, hi! Uh, yeah it's okay," Willow quickly replied, pulling a fallen lock of long red hair behind her ear.  
  
"It's not okay, Will, if Super Quarterback comes around and thinks..." the boy tried to alter his voice into a rougher, louder one. "'Oh, I'm so popular 'cause I'm the cool LA guy and Cordelia hit on me, I'm so hot, blah, blah - ya know what I could do to build my reputation in the new school? Make some fun of that redhead sitting here!'"  
  
"First off, if I really sound like that? Boy, do I have a problem," Xander frowned, and added after a sigh, "Look, I really wasn't-"  
  
"Jesse..." Willow tried to say once again, exchanging a look with a frowning Buffy, who had arrived with Jesse as well.  
  
The boy born and bred in Sunnydale turned to the redhead, and chuckled nervously. "Willow, lemme handle this - I mean, the jerk was laughing at you!" He turned back to Xander. "Look, if ya think you'll intimidate me 'cause you were some LA quarterback dude..."  
  
Jesse paused for a brief instant, seeing Xander towering in front of him, and added after a gulp, "Well, maybe you're absolutely right. But still! You don't get to mess with a friend of mine, without going through me first!"  
  
"Jesse!" Willow exclaimed at last, making her brunette friend snap his nervous face towards her. "He wasn't making fun of me! And he was laughing with me, not at me!" the redhead frowned. "He, um, he's strangely being very nice..."  
  
"Oh," Jesse blurted out, offering a short-lived, embarrassed grin to Xander. "Well, he knows I was just messin' with him. Right, buddy?" he chuckled, teasingly punching Xander with a light blow in the arm.  
  
Xander, now utterly confused, just stood unresponsive to that act for a silent moment.  
  
"Okay, I suppose now's a good time to shut up," a beaten Jesse said, dropping his bag and sitting near Willow in defeated silence.  
  
"Actually, that'd have been appropriate about two minutes ago," Willow helpfully whispered into Jesse's ear, who scowled at her and grinned once again that nervous grin towards Xander.  
  
Buffy did the same and sat in front of Willow and Xander, who had sat down again as well. "He's hit his head a lot over the years. But don't worry, Jesse's mostly harmless," she smiled in mocking apology.  
  
Xander turned to Buffy and they locked eyes for a fleeting second, making the blonde's heart do that now-familiar loop-the-loop, as he grinned at the comment.  
  
Willow noticed the reciprocated glance between the two teens. "You two met already?"  
  
"Oh, me and Xander go way back, old friends, very close. Then there's that period of estrangement where I think we were both growing as people, but now here we are, like old times. I'm quite moved," Buffy retorted, and frowned at that incredibly Willow-like babble-fest. "I'm sorry about that. Sometimes, I can be odd and bizarre..."  
  
Wow Buffy, why don't you just dress up like Barney? I'm sure a big purple dinosaur's costume couldn't be worse than this! the blond-haired girl thought sorrowfully, already annoyed at herself for not managing to understand why this boy had the capacity for setting her off like that.  
  
"Oh, don't mind my friend Buffy, she's hit her head a lot - but she's truly harmless. Ya know, maybe some drooling to be seen occasionally, but yeah, safe to be with in public," Jesse apologized, sporting a vengeful and deliciously evil grin.  
  
Buffy scowled viciously at him.  
  
"Nah, don't worry, I've had a lot of those moments too. Ya know, when you think, 'gee, even if I got dressed up in a Barney costume, I wouldn't be capable of doing any worse damage'. Guess you just can't help those moments. They're evil, random and unpredictably tricky," Xander said emphatically.  
  
Buffy smiled internally at him.  
  
"Anyways, if hitting your head's an issue, then I'm in big trouble..."  
  
When Xander said that, he did it without really thinking; remembering his patrolling fights with demons and vamps, and the unavoidable souvenirs in the form of headaches and concussions.  
  
"Oh, you mean the football thing? Sure, of course, the voluntarily-offering- yourself-to-play-a-stupidly-violent-game-to-score-with-the-cheerleaders thing," Buffy absently fired off the retort, then instantly regretting her big mouth and how it seemed unconnected to her brain.  
  
"Football? Oh, right, football! What else could it be? Pfft, certainly not late-night fights in a cemetery with guys that look like they're on PCP," Xander babbled nervously, trying his best to sound dismissive.  
  
Buffy, Willow and Jesse all stared at him, with odd looks on their faces.  
  
Anyone with a Barney costume? No? What a pity, Xander sarcastically rebuked himself.  
  
"I guess he's hit his head a lot too," Jesse murmured in Willow's ear, and the redhead grinned.  
  
"Actually I started playing football more 'cause of the college scholarship deal," the brunette Slayer amended, making the petite blonde blush at her initial comment. "But hey, you can't ignore the thing about cheerleader chi- "  
  
Xander immediately cut himself off, seeing the glances from both Willow and Buffy, and cleared his throat to continue. "Respectful young dancers, that deserve kudos for their great efforts and sacrifices during a game. And ya know..."  
  
"It's got nothing to do with getting your very own pack of brainless anorexic groupies," Buffy snorted at the demonstration of hormones on Xander's part. So much for the blushing.   
  
"I was gonna say the routine builds up a good working relationship, and that cheerleaders and football players together isn't exactly some depraved orgy all the time," Xander said, smiling smart-assedly to Buffy. "But I'm sure your theory about malnutrition and lack of intellect could be very valid too..."  
  
"You mean there's no such thing as evil orgies?" Willow suddenly blurted out in surprise. "Funny, all of a sudden it's like I don't know if I can trust in what's real and what's not!"  
  
"I'm real, but Pamela Anderson's breasts aren't," Jesse said helpfully.  
  
"Oh, now I'm back," Willow smiled in relief.  
  
"Thank God," Buffy rolled her eyes.  
  
Watching the three friends engage in the cheerful banter, Xander suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine. It brought back memories of LA, and Hemery High; conversations he had had with his three closest buds, before he'd learnt all about the things that went bump in the night after Merrick had found him.  
  
His friends - Tyler, Kim and Jennifer.  
  
All of them were dead now, killed by the vampires Lothos and Amilyn.  
  
Xander tried desperately to think of something else. He looked at the blonde girl, "Wait a minute, you were a cheerleader!" when the memory hit the boy, the accusation was immediate.  
  
Buffy's mouth hung open for a prolonged second. "How d'ya learn..."  
  
"Photograph. Hall. Mini-skirt," the dark-haired teen answered pragmatically. "So you pull this whole 'We Hate Cheerleaders' club thing and then you go all 'oopsie, I may have forgotten to mention I was once one of them'?"  
  
"It doesn't count, 'cause you weren't supposed to know that," Buffy reasoned nonsensically in her own defense.  
  
"Very logical, Miss Maturity," Xander teased playfully.  
  
"Okay, I give up - all right? I'm not proud of it, not one bit! But I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't below them, just 'cause I didn't do some silly dance and had to act as if I had forgotten how to think. Thankfully though, I fully recovered from that road to perdition, which means I can still talk about subjects that don't exclusively involve boys and clothes."  
  
"You're being kinda unfair to them. They do talk a lot about make-up and hair too," Xander sighed, making Buffy grin.  
  
Jesse elbowed Willow. "Ouch! Why'd you do that?" the redhead cried out.  
  
"To get your attention, like discreetly?" the boy whispered matter-of- factly, with a hint of ephemeral annoyance.  
  
"Oh - gotcha!" the petite girl retorted. "So, what is it?"  
  
"Is it just me, or is our sweet little Buff totally into the new dude?" Jesse glanced meaningfully at an unaware Xander.  
  
Willow suspiciously eyed the young couple engaged in a conversation. "Nah... when she's into some guy, she always does that embarrassing laugh, remember? It's actually very funny, 'cause it's like the exact same noise of a mating hyena and-"  
  
The redhead was interrupted unexpectedly by a hysterically laughing Buffy.  
  
While Willow glanced at her blonde-haired friend worriedly, Jesse just grinned goofily. "Alright, way to go sister B!"  
  
***  
  
TBC. Tons of reviews, please! 


	5. The Conspiracy

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
"Hey, Willow, don't we have that thing to do?" Jesse then burst out loud all of a sudden, making the three other teens jump at the unforeseen scary occurrence.  
  
An unsuspecting Willow frowned. "What thing? What the heck are you - ouch!" she suddenly cried out, hit by the tall boy's elbow, and rapidly amended, "Oh, right! Uh, what are we waiting for then? Let's go do that, uh, thing we've gotta do!"  
  
Buffy cocked a suspicious eyebrow at her two best friends. "What exactly do you two have to do?"  
  
Willow and Jesse exchanged a sideways look and answered in unison, with a slight singsong tone, "The thing."  
  
"Name it," the petite blonde challenged, the voice severe and the hazel eyes boring piercingly into the two students' ocean-green and dark ones.  
  
"Find some books in the library?" Willow offered meekly, at the same time Jesse tried, "Peek into the girls' shower room?"  
  
"And then find some books in the library?" the brunette boy subsequently added lamely, getting himself a roll of the eyes from Willow.  
  
"You guys are definitely weird today. Why are you weird today?" Buffy asked, as Xander, feeling more and more like an outsider amidst the long- time trio of friends, tried to looked amused.  
  
After several seconds of utter silence, Jesse finally said, "Willow's gay, so she was ashamed to admit we were gonna peek into the girls' shower room and all..."  
  
"Hey! No, I'm not! Gay, that is! I mean, I'm not gay, Jesse!" the red- haired student cried out, slapping the taller teenager's forehead.  
  
"Ouch, what was that for?" the boy shot back, and afterwards smirked evilly for only Willow to see. He started to patronize her gently, "That's okay, Wills, we'll still keep lovin' ya anyway. You and me have been best friends like forever, so you don't gotta be ashamed of your feelings..."  
  
The redhead stage-whispered in rebuttal, "I'll get you for this, you big doofus!"  
  
"Willow, Jesse, we got it already, 'kay? Go do that thing, ah, that thing you two have to-" Buffy started to say, and was interrupted by a mad Willow.  
  
"It's not peeking into the girls' shower room, Buffy!" the 16-year-old girl roared.  
  
An embarrassed pause. "Right, right, I'm sorry, it's just that Jess kept saying it and it ended up stuck in my mind!" she apologized quickly, and then scowled at a smirking Jesse.  
  
Willow then murmured, "Not helping."  
  
"Anyways, since I believe both me and Xander have a superior mentality to that of a five year-old kid, we're able to understand you two want to do the thing - that doesn't involve peeking the girls' shower room," the blonde remarked under Willow's glance.  
  
"If you wanna talk about dark, painful secrets that I can't know about, that's 'kay. After all, both you two've known each other longer than me," Buffy continued dismissively, but obviously seeming hurt at her exclusion.  
  
Willow instantly felt guilty. "No, that's not true, Buffy... and hey, you know I met you in kindergarten only two minutes after I met Jesse!"  
  
"It's still earlier," the petite blonde grumbled in a low voice, belligerently.  
  
At the seemingly never-ending discussion between the three childhood friends, not for the first time Xander felt like a fish out of water. "Ya know, I've got to go... somewhere. 'Cause, anyway, it's getting dark..." the boy looked up to notice the bright sunny day, and added with a mental rebuke, "...in a few hours, and I can be a very slow walker..."  
  
"Don't we have classes yet?" Buffy mumbled to herself at Xander's sudden oddness.  
  
"No!" Willow cried out suddenly, to match with Jesse's frenzied, "Don't go, man!"  
  
Buffy and Xander stared at them with curious looks.  
  
Jesse tried to fix the situation. "Er... Buffy, pfft, she's the ultimate slow walker, dude; and ya know, with her petite size, I wouldn't like my friend walking all alone out there after school. If I didn't have to do that thing, ya know, I wouldn't let her be exposed to the dangerous side of Sunnydale..." the last sentence, whispered lamely by the brunette teen, immediately made Xander's inwards shiver.  
  
Completely ignorant of the dark-haired Slayer's fear, Buffy whined, "I'm not petite!"  
  
"Dangerous side of Sunnydale?" the ex-LA boy spoke the words slowly, trying to sound as unsuspicious as possible around his possible familiarity with the subject.  
  
Jesse rapidly tried to come up with a good excuse. "Yeah... like all the, uh, passing cars! In the dark, they wouldn't even see her on the road; or maybe they would, and they'd think it was a garden gnome or something that went for a walk, and then bam, Summers roadkill..."  
  
"I'm. Not. A. Garden. Gnome," Buffy practically growled this time, just to be ignored once again.  
  
"But isn't that's why there are indicator- ummph!" Willow muffled when Jesse's hand quickly covered her mouth, not allowing her to finish the sentence.  
  
Most of her face hidden by Jesse's hand, the redhead's eyes widened at the understanding of the boy's intentions. "Got it," she whispered the muffled words, and he retracted the hand with a wild, distracting grin towards Buffy and Xander.  
  
It was while looking at the epiphany-face of her redheaded friend that, all of a sudden, Buffy suddenly realized everything.  
  
The. Whole. Deal.  
  
They're trying to set us up! The, the... the sneaky bastards! There's no stupid 'thing' those two wanna do after all...   
  
The blonde felt the palms of her hands starting to get cold, at the possibility of Xander also realizing the plan.  
  
It'll probably happen sooner than it did with Slow Buffy here, Miss Summers grunted sarcastically, annoyed with herself for being so blind.  
  
Shooting a hurried sideways glance at Xander, and even inwardly smiling to herself at how cute he seemed, lost and stuck in Willow and Jesse's insane world and behavior, a sudden change of heart occurred to the blonde girl. In fact, her distress with her friends briskly changed to a overwhelming insecurity crawling within her insides.  
  
What if he also figures it out, and thinks it's just a totally lame unfunny idea? And what if he thinks I'm yucky? Or weird? And if he can't wait to get rid of me? Oh my God, I bet he thinks I've got stupid hair. That cocky quarterback is laughing at the expense of my bad hair day!   
  
Deciding that the best, and less embarrassing choice was to cool down, Buffy contained her nervousness by switching sides again, and sending murderous glances to her friends.  
  
Jesse lamely began, "Good-byes always make me like over-emotional, so before I start crying a river or whatever, I'll just turn around with my pal Willow to peek into the girls' - ouch!" he cried at Willow's pinch and rapidly corrected himself, a little belligerently though, "go look for some books, 'cause that's so much more freakin' believable and-"  
  
Another pinch. "Ouch! Seriously, you've gotta stop doin' that," the tall brunette shot a look at his red-haired childhood friend.  
  
"So... uh, Xander, can you, uh, protect Buffy from being mistaken as a garden gnome and walk her home?" Willow took charge of the situation before Jesse made an even bigger disaster of it, but soon found out she wasn't gonna make it any better.  
  
"Why do people keep ignoring the fact that we still have classes to attend today?" Buffy murmured in annoyance, still grouchy and furious at their conspiratorial ideas.  
  
"Avoid passing cars, or potential hit and runs on account of the garden gnome thing; yeah, I think I can cover all that," an amused and confused Xander replied slowly.  
  
***  
  
"Great plan, Einstein," Willow snorted after she and Jesse finally departed from their blonde friend and the newest student at Sunnydale High.  
  
"Wow, thanks Will... That's kinda sweet of you, since it didn't work out very well and - hey! Wait a minute, you're being all sarcastic and stuff!" Jesse pointed his finger at her, realizing the true meaning of her words.  
  
"Peeking into the girls' shower room? And gay?!" the redhead finally exploded, catching a few curious glances around her.  
  
"Yeah, just practicing for the school play this year... You should all come, it's really gonna kick ass!" Jesse exclaimed with a wild smile, which was very similar to Willow's.  
  
Everyone quickly ignored the geeks. "Hey, I'm sorry if Cupid Boy here was tryin' to save our asses so we could leave the two love-birds alone! Anyways, as if Buffy would ever buy the me deliberately-stepping-into-a- library-to-find-some-books thing," Jesse cuffed back.  
  
Willow rolled her ocean-green eyes yet again. "The school cafeteria's on the way. You could've easily make a stop there when we were goin' - *that* would have been very believable and unsuspicious."  
  
The tall boy thought it over for some moments and, with a rueful sigh, shook his head. "Yeah, that'd have been real smart."  
  
The redhead exhaled. "What are we gonna do now?"  
  
Jesse shrugged. "Wanna go to the cafeteria?"  
  
Willow just glared, making her brunette friend frown.  
  
"What? There's jelly for dessert today," the boy rationalized matter-of- factly.  
  
*** I know this chapter was very silly, and shorter too - well, I'll start to intensify the story very soon. Please, review me so I can know your opinions and ideas! 


	6. And I Don't Wanna Love Him

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
They watched Willow and Jesse walk away for a moment, and then Xander furrowed his forehead and turned to Buffy. "Where they ever, ya know..."  
  
"Diagnosed lunatics? In a mental institution? In serious need of psychological help?" the blonde intervened apologetically.  
  
Xander chuckled, absently pulling his red backpack higher on his shoulder. "I was gonna ask if they were dating or something, but lapses of sanity seems like a way-juicier topic," he said jokingly.  
  
The blond-haired adolescent chuckled at the answer, and then giggled when she realized what the true question was. "Wills and Jess? Oh no, no, God, no. They are just so full of issues, but them entering Dateville? You'd have to, like, wait for the apocalypse to hit first or something..."  
  
"Don't jinx us like that, Summers," Xander mumbled to himself.  
  
"Did you say something?" Buffy asked with curiosity.  
  
"It was a beautiful summer," the innocent-looking boy clarified, and stayed on the subject to elude the girl a little more. "Ya know, California weather and all. Sun, me like. Lots of sun, me like lots."  
  
Buffy laughed. "You're funny."  
  
Xander absently kicked a stone in front of him in his way. "Thanks... uh, that is, funny 'ha-ha' or funny 'back away and avoid eye contact, pal, 'cause I've gotta pepper spray in my purse'?"  
  
The blond-haired teen laughed again.  
  
"Kinda both," she opted to say in what she hoped was a neutral, cool way. The yellow signal kind of way, as Jesse had once said; that's neither the green, 'I'll follow you like a faithful puppy for the rest of your life' sign, or the red one, the 'If I was an iceberg I still wouldn't be any more colder, so forget it, honey'.  
  
Oh no, now it's a fact that I've hit rock bottom. I'm actually listening to Jesse's theories, Buffy realized with a hint of horror.  
  
Their sideways glances accidentally met, and she silently smiled, making him smile too.  
  
It was the same silence that overpowered their walk for some fleeting seconds, till Xander eventually broke it. "So, any decent spot for having some teenage fun that you'd recommend here in the 'dale?"  
  
Oh my God, did he just ask me if I wanna go out with him? No, get a grip, Summers! He just wants to know if there's any fun to be had in this boring little town, where he could pick up any anorexic chick to be seen in public with... but isn't he okay with being seen with me in public too? Oh, oh, does he think I'm his anorexic chick now? a conflicted Buffy panicked, but then a more girlish silliness overpowered her mind.  
  
He thinks I'm cool enough to be his anorexic chick.   
  
And then, once again, the eternal loop of confusion that was Buffy Summers' mind started up once more. Wait, it's wrong to be okay with his thinking of me as his anorexic chick! But do I really care? Grr... stop it, Buffy - you're totally losing it, he didn't actually say anything like that at all ... God, you're so pathetic!   
  
It was a sad fact that Xander's question, however, had been asked with a very different purpose than fulfilling Buffy's private fantasies.  
  
Merrick had taught him that if you wanna find the hunter, you gotta look for the right prey first. And clubs full of teenagers ignorant of their demonic nature, with some kids drunk or even strung out on drugs, was like a true 'all-you-can-eat' buffet for the undead population.  
  
And in a small town like Sunnydale seemed to be... Xander, who was still reluctant to fully accept his fate and duty as the Slayer after what had happened at Hemery, just wanted to get a feel of the territory - scope out the unfamiliar area.  
  
What the hell am I thinking? Quit being a blind numbskull and take a good look at this town, Harris; it's freakin' well like something out of a 50's TV series! I bet everybody knows everybody else around here - some of the houses even have white picket fences, for God's sake.   
  
The boy shook his head in self-disgust. So stop looking for vamps in Pleasantville - and what the hell, you're done with the whole Slayer thing anyway, remember? No more late night patrols, no more dead friends and no more burning down parts of the school, comprende?   
  
Neither Buffy nor Xander, both so engulfed in their own thoughts, noticed how long had actually passed since a word had been spoken between the two of them.  
  
"The Bronze," Buffy then finally broke the silence, out of the blue.  
  
"The who?" a distracted Xander, obviously lost, questioningly bored his eyes into Buffy's.  
  
Feeling a little stupid, the petite teenager elucidated more specifically, "It's a club we've got here, The Bronze - lots of sweaty teens, loud music and if you're lucky, someone forgets an almost totally full can of free Coke on the table. It's pretty much the only place to be... especially when Sunnydale only has the one club."  
  
"Extra sweat and loud music? Sounds fun, in a sorta masochistic kinda way," Xander replied slowly.  
  
Buffy chuckled. "Yeah, well, we don't have a whole lotta town here. Choices you can make, are pretty much limited."  
  
"There's the free Coke thing though," the boy remembered, a thin smile on his face as they absently stopped in front of the main doors of Sunnydale High.  
  
"If you get lucky," Buffy remembered with a grin of her own, but soon realized what she had said and swiftly amended, "Are! If you are lucky. Is there any way you can pretend I turned back time, and didn't say that last part?"  
  
"That could be arranged... but nah, where'd the fun of using it later against ya be then?" Xander teased her.  
  
"So, heartless and manipulative?" Buffy cocked a brisk eyebrow.  
  
"Don't forget unmerciful and calculating. It's kind of my thing," the male teen continued the banter, faking proud.  
  
"You kinda make it sound like a penis metaphor," Buffy cringed slightly, and frowned, a little blushed. "Can I say that word to someone I've only known for a few minutes?"  
  
Xander laughed nervously at that, and then said, "If you don't want to hear that creepy, weird laugh again, I think it's no problem."  
  
Looking down at the ground and pulling a lock of her behind her ear, the blonde girl then said, acting by impulse, "You know, there's this really cool band that'll play tonight, and me and my friends are gonna go, so maybe, um, you should show! I heard Mondays are great days to get some free Cokes... unless, you'll be busy with all the unpacking and stuff?"  
  
When Buffy noticed there was only silence to her question, she immediately felt her heart cringe, and then she became angry with herself for making a stupid move like that.  
  
But looking up with a hint of fear, the blond-haired girl was pretty sure she actually heard her heart cringe this time; because she'd noticed Xander didn't seem to have heard one word of what she'd said, on account of his attention was completely focused on Cordelia Chase.  
  
"Uh, I gotta go. Lots of unpacking to do," Xander excused himself lamely, his expression suddenly turned to one of anxiety and unease.  
  
Buffy tried to smile coolly, despite the raging turbulence inside. "Unpacking, yeah. That's, uh, that's okay. Unpacking is peachy, with a side of keen. I guess..."  
  
But then, for some seconds, his features softened again and the Slayer added, "Well, it was nice to have met you, and Jesse and Willow... See ya around, 'kay?"  
  
Xander then turned away and hurriedly fled in Cordelia's direction, leaving Buffy behind in his dust.  
  
The blonde angrily kicked a stone that was right in front of her foot. "Oh yeah, I just bet he and Cordelia have a lot of unpacking to do tonight," the girl mumbled sarcastically to herself, shooting a venomous glance at the distant brunette cheerleader.  
  
If Buffy hadn't just focused on Cordy though, she'd have noticed the police detective that was talking to her and her friends, Aura and Aphrodisia; and also a couple of bluesuits, that were standing a little further behind them, followed by a reporter and his cameraman.  
  
Which, by the way, was exactly what had caught Xander's attention - and caused him to run off like that.  
  
***  
  
"Buffy, you and Willow want some cookies? I just baked them!" Joyce's cheerful voice yelled from downstairs that night, after school was over.  
  
"No Mom, we're good, thanks!" the teen shouted in reply, and closed the door of her room with extra force. The red-haired girl shivered absent- mindedly in her spot.  
  
"You..." Buffy said menacingly, glaring in a maniac psychotic manner at a gulping Willow, seated on the edge of the blonde teen's bed. "...are so dead!"  
  
The redhead opened her mouth to try to babble something, but a frenetic Buffy cut her off. "What the heck were you guys thinkin'? And the thing! The thing? There wasn't even a thing, don't try to lie to me; you, you two made it all up, so I could be alone with Xander!"  
  
"We're sorry?" Willow offered meekly, once Buffy shut up and sent the redhead a look that meant she was waiting for answers.  
  
Buffy glared. "You can do a lot better than that."  
  
"We're so, so, so sorry?" the redhead tried again, and upon the threat of receiving that glare again, rapidly amended, "It was all Jesse's idea!"  
  
A frown. "Okay, I suppose nobody like a tattletale," Willow mused loudly to herself. "Look, Buffy, I'm sorry... but it's just that you did the mating hyena laugh, and you know how long it's been since we've heard that from you? Too long, I just... I just thought Xander seemed like a decent guy..."  
  
"I so did not do the mating hyena laugh!" an emotional Buffy replied, forgetting about the rest of the sentence.  
  
"Yes, you did! You went like this," Willow paused for a second, and then started laughing in a exaggeratedly hysterical way for many moments.  
  
"Okay, okay, I get the point! But please either stop it, or just shoot me now," the blond-haired teen said in annoyance.  
  
The redhead, the color of her cheeks matching her hair's, stopped instantaneously. "I can't blame you, though. He is a cutie, huh?"  
  
Buffy glared at her again, but the two soon broke in a giggle. "Tight jeans, thy name is Xander."  
  
"And the mysterious-guy look, the messy-but-gracious-kind-of-messy hair, and the cool red backpack always hanging on his shoulder? And, and the whole sexy foreign aura?" Willow kept adding enthusiastically.  
  
Buffy stared at her in sudden incredulity, cocking an eyebrow. "Will, do *you* like Xander?"  
  
The redhead blushed in response. "What? No! Just got, uh, a little overexcited. Sorry."  
  
The petite blonde unexpectedly crashed her body against the fluffy bed, almost making Willow fall from the edge. "Oomph! Idiocy, thy name is Buffy," her muffled voice against the pillow moaned.  
  
"Idiocy? No, that's so not true! You're a little headstrong, but in no way an idiot," the petite hacker hurried to comfort her friend.  
  
Buffy, however, was convinced. "No Wills, it's idiocy plus imbecility plus the entire lot of all those kind of things," she said morosely. "He's cute. He's mysterious. He's out of my league. He's-"  
  
"Buffy. You're not stupid, you're just in love."  
  
Buffy's head quickly popped into Willow's range of vision, making her internally yelp at the suddenness of it. "Love? Me? In love? I never said I was in love with Xander - come on, that's like the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"  
  
The red-haired girl looked on in silent worry at her friend's manic behavior, which was basically making faces and a lot of hand gestures.  
  
"Why would someone think I'm in love with Xander? Geez, he just arrived here... so yeah, okay, he's a cutie - to anyone female that's got eyes! So what if I didn't stop thinkin' about him from the second I first saw him; and so what if I think my heart'll burst every time I hear his name? In love, pfft. That's the biggest nonsense you've ever said in like, three lifetimes..."  
  
Buffy suddenly paused and actually heard her words echoing in her own mind; she then looked horrified, as a prudent Willow cautiously nodded her head in confirmation to the unspoken question.  
  
"Oh my gosh, no. I'm so in love with Xander," the girl fearfully realized, and an unforeseen yelp made Willow flinch. "Ah! I heard his name, and my heart did it again!"  
  
The eldest of the Summers daughters languidly raised her body to a sitting position on the bed. "I never asked for this, Wills. Seriously. I'm so screwed."  
  
"You never told me what happened after Jesse and I left you two alone," Willow softly offered.  
  
"What else?" Buffy snorted bitterly. "He ditched me. Made up some ultra- lame excuse, and headed straight for Cordelia."  
  
The first feeling that crawled inside Willow's head was anger towards Xander, and at herself for liking him from that very first moment. She knew there was no actual fault to be his in all this, but since her best friend was hurt she felt it was 'justifiable' to blame the male Slayer now.  
  
"Are you sure? I mean, did you actually see him go talk to her?" Willow questioned, with as much sympathy as possible.  
  
"Well, pretty much. Okay, I didn't hang around long enough for the sordid details; but he sure seemed all anxious to 'go unpack' with her," the sentence, that left Willow confused, was said with spiteful sarcasm.  
  
"Maybe it was just some trick of the light - and what you thought was Cordelia was actually just a, uh, a lamppost?" Willow offered lamely.  
  
Despite herself, Buffy chuckled through her slightly sniffy voice. "Oh no, it was definitely her. I don't think a lamppost would be able to complain that loud."  
  
The two girls giggled at that, but the giggles soon disappeared and silence occurred for some moments.  
  
Buffy sighed and stated matter-of-factly, "I should have known better; Cordelia's popular and I'm not. She's hot, rich, beautiful and I'm just-"  
  
"A big, yucky load of white trash?" Willow completed with accented sarcasm, raising an eyebrow. "Come on, Buffy, you don't really believe what Cordelia says, do you? You never did before..."  
  
The blond-haired girl smiled morosely. "I know. But I did the mating hyena laugh. That equals no sane thoughts, and a sudden urge for ice cream and oysters. I just can't help it; it's really my curse, like you and Jesse always say I go all weird and freaky. And plus, today I had stupid hair..."  
  
Willow furrowed her forehead, at hearing the last sentence. "Now I remember the insane thought part..."  
  
"Let's go to the Bronze!" the redhead suddenly exclaimed, getting excited over the idea. "Then you can cool down a bit, shake your bones, rock 'n roll and oh my God I think maybe your temporary dementia is getting catchy," the redhead shut herself up, frowning at her over-enthusiasm.  
  
"I don't know," an unconvinced Buffy retorted. "I just don't feel in the mood for Bronzing it tonight, ya know?"  
  
"Please?" her petite friend whined. "For me?" that, with the best Willow puppy-dog eyes, was said in a heart-breaking tone of voice.  
  
The blonde female grunted at that low blow. "I thought this was about me and my existential crisis?"  
  
"But you don't have an existential crisis," Willow frowned.  
  
"Yeah, well, it just sounded like a clever thing to say at that moment," the other teen shrugged in response.  
  
"Go out and blow off some steam, " the redhead offered gently. "Maybe we can even score a free Coke."  
  
Buffy sighed. "I dunno, Wills. I still gotta go talk to Mr. Flutie about whatever masochist 'non-punishment' he has in store for me tomorrow. I'll be all tired and grouchy, so I don't exactly think I'll be Fun Buffy tonight..."  
  
"Pretty please?" Willow tried sheepishly.  
  
"Oh, fine! Let's go Bronzing tonight," the blond-haired girl gave up, and wasn't able to help but smile a little at her friend's wild grin.  
  
***  
  
Author's note: there was a half-quote from 'The Zeppo', and another from 'Where The Wild Things Are'. And also, I just wanted to say that all the silly dialogue's just a reflection I'd like to show, about how life might have been for Willow and Xander before Buffy and her vamp friends entered the equation. Simple and uncomplicated, mostly with teen problems that, well, I know the show's all about metaphors, but I don't think there's a match to wishing you'd die 'cause you were dumped or having a vampire boyfriend that turns into a soulless monster and all the other stuff. Anyways, the story's summary do make sense, and I'll explain ocasionally. And well, I'm having a hard time to decide who's the souled vamp after all, but the two things I know is that, first: I'm not chosing Darla, 'cause I'd not really know how to write her at all, and probably not Drusilla too. Maybe... someone else. Someone unexpected. And, last but not less important, I'm already saying: this will not be a slash. I don't have anything agaisnt them, but I just don't know how to write them either.  
  
And, right, one last thing: please, REVIEW! 


	7. About Lipsticks, Tweeds and Duties

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
[A Little Earlier That Day]  
  
"Is this gonna air on national TV?"  
  
The impatient reporter forced a smile and, just barely containing his ire, replied through clenched teeth, "No, sweetheart, for the eighth time - this is just for KTLA, okay?"  
  
"Oh," Aura, one of the Cordettes, blurted out, and subsequently rolled her eyes. "Bummer."  
  
The young reporter tried one more time, his voice desperate and his face like that of someone who was dangerously near to having a nervous breakdown. "Can we please begin the interview now?"  
  
Aphrodesia raised her hand, and the worn-out 30-something man asked in exasperation, lowering his hand in a wild, more-haggard-than-impatient movement "What is it?"  
  
"Hey, uh, Mr. Reporter Guy? I'm really sorry, but could you wait just a minute so I can get my lipstick? It's just that I left it in my locker, and- "  
  
The man cut her off, his patience really running short now, "No, no lipstick! And no, it's not gonna air on national TV; and no, I can't wait for your mother's hairdresser to show up. No, I don't have any idea if the camera's gonna show you five pounds fatter than what you really are - and, quite honestly, I don't give a damn! If you wanna do the interview, then we do it now!"  
  
Aura elbowed her friend, and glared. "Now look what you did - you made him all nervous, you dimwit!"  
  
"What? Pfft, it's not like I can appear on TV without any lipstick... what would people think of me?" Aphrodesia mumbled defensively.  
  
Regretfully, the first airhead apologized while the reporter eyed the scene with incredulity. "Yeah, you so have a point. Um, could ya get some for me, while you're at it?"  
  
The young reporter's patience finally reached its limit, when a loud 'pop' was heard and his incredulous glance fell on the noise's originator: Cordelia Chase, chewing gum and looking around till she realized the guy's crazed look was directed at her.  
  
"What?" she asked, clueless.  
  
"That's it! I can't do this anymore, I quit! I quit! You three," he pointed, letting out a brief maniacal chuckle, "are seriously, severely insane!" the young man cried out loud.  
  
"Jeez, you don't need to go all Norman Bates on us," Cordelia crossed her arms.  
  
"That was like, totally impolite," Aphrodesia rejoined.  
  
"Yeah, come on, we're gonna behave, be good girls or whatever," Aura rolled her eyes.  
  
The cameraman interrupted, "Ah, boss? There's this really, really weird vein jumpin' out on your forehead; I, uh, maybe it's time for a break or something..."  
  
"They are driving me crazy, Cooper, I swear these girls are driving me completely nuts," the reporter muttered to the cameraman, who guided and gently sat down the traumatized man on a bench near the network's van.  
  
"There ya go, chief, there ya go. Want me to get you a glass of water or something?" the subordinate asked softly, and the slightly trembling reporter nodded thankfully.  
  
"Hey, what about our interview? I skipped a manicure, to be here right now!" Aura complained in the background, full of righteous indignation.  
  
At the same time, Cordelia felt herself being pulled away from her friends' sides by a firm grip on her arm. The girl felt annoyed that some peon was manhandling her like this, till Cordy turned around and saw the identity of her companion.  
  
Her heart skipped a beat in lustful fascination when she saw the handsome features of Xander Harris again, but then the cheerleader remembered how pissed she was with him right now.  
  
"You," the brunette girl shot out a glare, sweeping his arm away with her hand. "Who said you could be seen with me in public anymore?"  
  
"Yeah, uh, maybe we can talk about how awful it is to see me again later," Xander rolled his eyes, and then amended more gravely, "Look, seriously, I need to talk to you."  
  
The cheerleader stared incredulously, and then snorted in belligerence, giving up.  
  
"Okay, fine. But I'm only letting people see us together, 'cause before I could get any time to tell everyone what a complete loser you are, I was interrupted by the *extreme* dead guy in the locker," the brunette girl explained, trying to be disdainful at her best.  
  
"What are you talking about?" the male Slayer inquired, his features suddenly anxious.  
  
"Ah, excuse me? What am I talking about? You know, even with that tainted record from your old school, you still had the chance for a fresh start here - but then you so totally blew it, mister! You left *me* standing in the hallway, to deliberately promote your downward mobility. And, FYI, that's a big no-no around here," the angry brunette hissed, finally getting the chance to vent a little.  
  
"What? What are you talk- look, never mind, whatever," a distracted Xander replied, almost making his female companion seethe with fury. "Cordelia. Please. What were you saying about the dead guy in the locker?"  
  
"Oh, that. I don't know, some guy was stuffed in Aura's locker," the girl replied dismissively.  
  
"Dead," Xander repeated slowly.  
  
"Totally dead. Way dead," Cordelia confirmed the boy's fears.  
  
"So it's not just a little dead, then?" the Slayer asked hopefully, having a tough time realizing he wasn't gonna be able to run from his past after all.  
  
A confused Cordelia just stared at Xander.  
  
"Um, how did he die?" the dark-haired boy then asked intensely, staring right into her hazel eyes.  
  
The teenage Chase felt suddenly cold, and embraced herself at the freakiness of the question. "Gee, how should I know?"  
  
"Well, were there any marks?" Xander, getting a little impatient, pushed the issue again.  
  
"Morbid much! I didn't look!" Cordelia replied in astonishment, forgetting her previous anger at the new boy. After staring at her interlocutor, she thought, What is *with* this guy? Yummy-looking hunk or not, is he a stalker or something?   
  
"What? You didn't... okay, Cor? I'm sorry - but I gotta go," Xander sighed, recomposing himself and walking away.  
  
"He can't be serious - oh my God, he is! I can't believe he ditched *me*, for the second time in one day! And he called me Cor? Well, but the name's not too bad though, hmm - I guess I kinda like it. But seriously, what *is* his deal?" the brunette girl, now hopelessly mesmerized, whispered to herself and stared as the boy disappeared into Sunnydale High's hallways.  
  
***  
  
Xander sneaked up to an outside entrance, careful to not let himself be seen by anyone. When the Slayer tried to open it, he noticed it was locked, and sighed at this. The dark-haired boy then used his supernatural strength to force open and break through the door, going in and, once again, looking around to be certain nobody had seen him.  
  
Entering the locker room, Xander eyed the body and approached, slowly pulling back the sheet to reveal the murdered guy. That was when he saw the vampire bite marks.  
  
"Oh, just great," the boy almost snarled in sarcasm.  
  
***  
  
Xander barged into the library. "Okay, what's the sitch?"  
  
"Sorry?" a confused Giles turned from the stacks.  
  
"You heard about the dead guy, right? The dead guy in the girls' locker- room?" the dark-haired teen inquired.  
  
"Yes," the Englishman answered with some gravity, stepping into the light.  
  
Xander dropped his bag on the study table, and headed up the stairs. "'Cause, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little, little holes in his neck, and all the blood's been drained from his body," the boy paused, meeting Giles' eyes at last. "Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going, 'oooh'?"  
  
Giles sighed. "I was afraid of this."  
  
"Well, that's fun, 'cause I know *I* wasn't! Merciful Zeus, it's my first day here! I was just tryin' to, ya know, fit in, scope out the new territory and trying not to stay behind in all my classes, maybe make some friends and actually not think first 'hey, this guy seems cool, I hope I won't have to stake him later'. I didn't think there'd be vampires on campus. And, oh yeah, one more thing: I don't care!"  
  
The librarian advanced a few steps and interrogated pointedly, "Then why are you here?"  
  
Xander chuckled nervously at the question. "Why am I here? Wha- well, I'll tell ya why I'm here; I'm here to tell you that... I don't care, which... I don't, and... have now told you, so... bye."  
  
Eyeing the boy turning to walk away, Giles intervened, "Is he, w-will he... rise again?"  
  
Xander turned back. "Who?"  
  
"The boy they found," Giles replied.  
  
"Nah. The dude's just dead," the dark-haired Slayer replied, shrugging.  
  
"But can you be sure?" the middle-aged man questioned him.  
  
Xander sighed. "To make you a vampire, they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing - kinda like bad porn, y'know? But vamps, mostly they're just gonna kill you - we're like their late night comfort food, and why am I still talking to you, anyway?" he thought out loud, realizing it was happening indeed.  
  
Xander turned one more time and went down the stairs, a part of him in a rut with himself for coming here in the first place.  
  
Giles rapidly moved over to the railing. "You really have no idea what's going on, do you? You think it's coincidence, your being here? That boy was just the beginning."  
  
"Yeah, whatever. C'mon, why can't you people just leave me alone? What, am I some kind of demon magnet, or is all this just because of some past-life bad karma deal?" the teen retorted grouchily.  
  
"It's because you are the Slayer," Giles solemnly answered, and came down the stairs to continue. "Into each generation a Slayer is born, one young man in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires..."  
  
The dark-haired boy promptly interrupted and joined in, "...with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil blah, blah, blah... I've heard it, okay? And you wanna know what I think? It was all just a case of me being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Find yourself a new nitwit, 'cause I quit this gig a while ago, alright?"  
  
"You what? But that's not - you know, I-I really don't understand this attitude. You, you've accepted your duty, you, you've slain vampires before..." the confused Watcher, somewhat in awe, stated.  
  
"Yeah, and I've both been there and done that and to be honest, it really sucked. So... I'm moving on," the teen announced.  
  
"What do you know about this town?" Giles suddenly asked gravely, going into his office.  
  
"Ah, I don't know, it's two hours on the freeway from Neiman-Marcus? Doesn't appear on half the maps out there in the real world? Holds the record for the biggest bubblegum bubble blown, ever? Didn't have a single Starbucks till a couple of years ago? Has most of its population dying, from complete and utter boredom?" Xander started to list endlessly, his voice accented with increasing hints of sarcasm and an acrid smirk of on his lips.  
  
From the other room, Giles' voice echoed, "Dig a bit in the history of this place, you'll find a, a steady stream of fairly odd occurrences. Now, I believe this whole area is a center of mystical energy," the Watcher came back, carrying four books with him. "That things gravitate towards it that, that, that you might not find elsewhere."  
  
Eyeing the Englishman set the books on the table, Xander replied carefully, "And this is the part where our vamp buddies jump into the scene."  
  
"Quite, quite, and also zombies, werewolves, incubi, succubi, everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed, but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day. They're all real!" the Watcher exclaimed, listing off the various possibilities. Giles then put the heavy volumes, one by one, into the boy's arms.  
  
Xander stared curiously, "What? You, like, sent away for the Time-Life series?"  
  
"Ah, w-w-w-yes," Giles replied with uncertainty.  
  
"Did you get the free phone?" the boy asked.  
  
"Um, the calendar," the librarian replied, a little ashamed.  
  
"Cool! But, 'kay," Xander started, starting to remove the set of books, "first of all, I'm a vampire Slayer. And secondly, if you haven't cottoned onto the idea yet, I'm retired. But hey, here's a thought! Why don't you kill 'em? Ya sure know all about the mojo and how to do stuff, you certainly look eager in a very creepy way to talk about the subject, and, honestly, the tweed? You don't seem very eager to get yourself a life, which I really want to do by the way..."  
  
At the last sentence, Giles glared, but then retorted uneasily, "I-I'm a Watcher, I-I haven't the skill..."  
  
But Xander didn't let the topic drop so easily, "Oh, come on, stake through the heart, a little sunlight... I'm sure you know the basics already. Trust me, it's like falling off a log."  
  
"A, a Slayer slays, a Watcher..." the middle-aged Watcher shrugged.  
  
"...watches?" the dark-haired boy completed.  
  
"Yes. No!" a confused Giles replied, gathering the books. "He, or she trains him, he, he, he prepares him..."  
  
Xander promptly interrupted, "Prepares me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life, and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? So do it, go ahead! Prepare me."  
  
They just looked at each other for a moment, till Xander exhaled, turned and left the library in disgust.  
  
Giles hesitated for an instant. "Damn..."  
  
***  
  
Please, review! Reviews are like oxygen to a fan-fiction writer, really. Pretty, chocolate-covered please? 


	8. The One With the Eavesdropper

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
Giles ran, and caught up with Xander in the halls. "It's getting worse!" his voice, grave and somehow desperate, broke the thin silence and made the dark-haired teen turn back.  
  
"What's getting worse?" the question, as neutrally as it was intended to be spoken, carried a hint of disturbance in the boy's voice.  
  
The British man guided him over to the wall, and spoke with him in a low tone. "The influx of the undead, the... supernatural occurrences, it's been building for years. There's a reason why you're here, and a reason why it's now!"  
  
"Okay, so I've got sense of timing that sucks. Still doesn't make me see how it is, that *that* makes me a Watcher's pet of yours. Great googly- moogly, aren't you Tweed Men supposed to be all bright and stuff? I said I'm retired, already! As in not gonna happen anymore, the end, not a chance, hasta la vista, baby, d-o-n-e?" the rebuttal, full of sarcasm yet nonchalant, held underneath it a sense of inner conflict and struggle  
  
Giles flinched at this. And while the brunette Slayer tried to evade him afterwards, he succeeded only to be stopped by the Watcher's arm. Xander tried to shake him off, but Giles' grip was surprisingly strong; so giving up, the young man followed the English guy back to the library.  
  
"Something's coming, something, something... something is, is gonna happen here. Soon!" the Watcher eventually insisted, nervousness clear on his middle-aged face.  
  
The reply dripped sarcasm. "Wow, vague that up for me, would ya?"  
  
"The signs, so far as I can tell, point to a crucial mystical upheaval, very soon. Days. Possibly less," Giles elucidated.  
  
"Oh, come on. This is Sunnydale! Driving through a red light is probably as evil as Evil can get, around here."  
  
The tense Watcher turned and, unexpectedly, exploded, sending Xander a fidgety and grave glare. "Look, young man, this is a very serious matter! Hundreds of innocent lives may be at stake!"  
  
At Xander's semi-shocked face at this sudden blast, Giles recomposed himself and rapidly added, looking himself a little taken aback at his own previous behavior, "The books, they d-don't hold enough answers - but, but the dawning is near. I was able to draw that much out. There's always a reason why things happen, and your arrival in Sunnydale is not to be considered in the scheme of things a, a mere coincidence."  
  
After a fleeting silence, Xander exploded back, "Yeah, well, I never asked to have to hunt for people who used to sit next to me in Mr. Zigman's math class! And now you're telling me that in the freakin' scheme of things, they all had to die so I would end up here, and that I'm supposed to respect that? Persuasive Guy much, only you're not!"  
  
"But you're still here now," Giles hinted meaningfully, in a solemn manner.  
  
Xander flinched at this, but forced himself to hide his own amazement at that fact. "I guess I'm just not that smart," he spat back, subsequently looking down and shaking his head.  
  
Raising his eyes again to lock with the Watcher's ones, the teenager's words were accented with traces of resolve and passion, and, underneath, faltering fear. "I'm not doing this anymore. None of you tweed-coated, fancy tea-drinking Brits cared that I had to dust the girl who gave me my first kiss, or if I almost got killed a zillion times, or if all I really wanted was to live a normal life. Isn't that how it works? You watch, while we do the dirty work? While we get ourselves and everybody we care about killed?"  
  
At Giles' surprised silence, the Slayer said, "Don't talk to me again. Ever."  
  
Xander wondered if he'd convinced the Englishman of his words, because, deep inside, the Slayer knew damn well he hadn't been able to convince himself at all. But, before the boy could either make up his mind to either leave or stay, a noise - an almost imperceptible one - called his attention to the rear of the room.  
  
Understanding that Giles, his stare directed from the floor to him and then to the floor again, and his silence indicating a lot was going through the Watcher's mind, hadn't noticed the sound, Xander then saw something on the library's floorboards.  
  
Something that hadn't been there, before the noise had occurred.  
  
And then a hand - a delicate, definitely female hand - came from behind the tall wooden stacks and bent down to get the fallen object from the floor, in a hurried and nervous movement.  
  
Before Buffy Summers, hidden behind one of the various shelves, heartbeat involuntary speeded up, was able to recover the accidentally collapsed red cap, she felt a pair of chocolate-brown eyes staring at her, wide and surprised.  
  
***  
  
Harmony Kendall broke into the bathroom in a mad dash, looking mortified.  
  
"Harmony!" Cordelia yelped at the suddenness of it.  
  
The blonde girl rushed to her friend's side. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God - I heard it all. Sweetie, are you okay?"  
  
The brunette girl looked lost for a moment, but quickly realized. "Oh! Yeah, it was totally gross to see it falling at Aura's feet, but I'm fine, really. At least there wasn't any blood, because I was wearing my new CK pants... I mean, could you imagine the disaster?"  
  
"Don't say another word," Harmony agreed, but subsequently whimpered, glanced at Cordelia with a merciful look. "But actually no, I wasn't talking about that - I heard what that new boy did this morning! He's gotta be nuts, to think he can just leave you standing there in the hall that way like you were last year's shoes or something - just 'cause he was cool in his old school and, well, the herpes rumor of last year?"  
  
The blond-haired teenager stopped in front of the mirror, continuing to talk while adjusting her appearance properly. "Okay, I mean everyone knows it was all just a big fat lie by that jealous blockhead Jenny - but let's face it, it didn't help your image like at all, and you know how these things can just pile up on top of one another..."  
  
Diverting her glance from her reflection, Harmony glanced back at Cordelia. "But, what that Alex guy did with you today? Nuh-uh mister, we've got rules in Sunnydale and so I say to him, you'll do that to my friend over my dead body!"  
  
"Uh, thanks," Cordelia forced a grin at that, and added more to herself, "I guess."  
  
But then, a realization came to the brunette girl's mind.  
  
The 16-year-old cheerleader knew all too well the unspoken meaning of carrying the scepter of her status, and even when she was nowadays pretty much considered the next generation of high school's leadership, the slightest of mistakes could indicate an opening for a new leader to rise.  
  
It wasn't that she was insecure about maintaining her crown. But the beginning of the school year, an unknown territory, could mean unstable times, even if for a short period of solidification of power. And the thought of Harmony risking her own reputation to stand up for her was, in some way, touching to Cordelia Chase.  
  
Harmony, however, quickly interrupted her thoughts. "You're totally lucky though, he's already showing himself to be like a loser - I mean, hanging out with those geeks? And did Aphrodesia tell you about the gym he *burned down* at Hemery High? It kinda reminds me of that Buffy Summers freak..."  
  
The blonde girl eyed her friend and, with a pout, whispered in a sugar- coated voice, "But I'd *so* hate to have to stop hanging out with you if it was otherwise, you know?"  
  
Harmony gushed, "I mean, whatever else he's done, he *is* from L.A. and he is so cute. And I'd have no choice but to stick with him - for my reputation and stuff, you know how these things are, right Cordelia?" Harmony asked, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.  
  
Cordelia's smile never faltered - but on the inside, she felt like she'd been slapped in the face at the foolishness of her previous thoughts. "Of course, you dunderhead. After all, I'm Cordelia Chase," she said absently.  
  
"The one and only," Harmony rejoined.  
  
Cordelia, catching a glimpse of her supposed friend's air-headed grin in the mirror's surface, then felt an abrupt pang of emptiness invade her heart and soul, but quickly shrugged it off like so many times she did before.  
  
***  
  
Brown eyes bored into hazel ones, both equally wide and equally puzzled. The instant had been almost ephemeral; but for Buffy and Xander, it seemed to have lasted a lot longer that its true duration.  
  
"So, you aren't going?" a confused Giles inquired, noticing the odd expression on the boy's face as Xander rapidly averted his gaze from the blond-haired girl's.  
  
The male Slayer chuckled lamely. "Ya know what? The thing is, uh, I still can hang out at the library if I want. And by the way, that was a very good rehearsal of the, um, play we're gonna have soon. Have you been practicing, or what?"  
  
Despite herself, Buffy rolled her eyes at the pitiful attempt of covering up the nonsense that she'd accidentally eavesdropped upon, less than a minute ago.  
  
"What? I, I'm not quite sure I understand you, Mr. Harris," Giles jabbered, advancing a few steps in the boy's direction with a suspicious look on his face.  
  
"No, wait!" Xander suddenly shouted, making the Englishman almost jump at the sudden fright. "I, um, maybe we should talk somewhere quieter?"  
  
At hearing that Giles, not for the first time bearing puzzlement on his features, cocked an eyebrow.  
  
"Or louder," Xander swiftly amended. "This place? Is a major wiggins- giver," he added, cursing himself mentally.  
  
"I thought you didn't want talk to me again. Ever," Giles replied doubtfully and in an absent manner, not for any instant looking at him but instead in the direction of the stacks, diverting himself from the barrier the teenager had made with his own body.  
  
"Oh, right, that. I, well, pfft, I had an epiphany - a real eye-opener, really. What's it hurt with the talking, ya know?" Xander offered lamely.  
  
Giles stopped in his place, glancing at the younger man with something that could only be classified as triumph. "I thought you didn't want to talk to tweed-coated, fancy, tea-drinking Brits anymore?"  
  
Even when his face was dead serious, Xander could easily see the inward smirk the Watcher was wearing. Giles started walking once again, and this time the dark-haired teen could not prevent him from doing so without generating definite suspicion.  
  
Predicting the close future ahead, the dark-haired youth closed his eyes tight. And when he opened them again, the shock of finding nothing behind the bookshelf but the floor made him stare dumbfounded at it, for a long instant.  
  
The middle-aged Watcher looked equally disconcerted at the discovery. And then it was Xander's turn to, with an externally serious expression, generate an internal smirk. "What? Lookin' for a book?"  
  
"N-no, I-I just..." the baffled Englishman stammered, and, giving Xander a curious look, turned and walked a little further, glancing to the side searchingly but finding nothing once again.  
  
Recomposing himself and clearing his throat, Giles turned back to Xander, only to find out the boy wasn't there anymore either. Fleeting instants later, the Watcher heard the library's doors bang shut.  
  
Giles adjusted his spectacles, taken aback at the turn of events this day had been proving to be with regards to the Council's assignment to his new Slayer. He just cursed quietly, "Bloody hell..."  
  
***  
  
In the next chapter... who's Xander gonna find in the dark alley? It's wicked, it's daring, it's... OK, I got a little carried over, but it's definitively not who you're thinking it's... Stay tuned, folks, and let me know what you think of it so far! 


	9. Ready to Believe, or Closely Enough

Title: A Simple Twist Of Fate  
  
Author: Jane McCartney  
  
Disclaimer: Despite numerous attempts to make it otherwise, none of them are mine. Joss and UPN and ME own 'em all.  
  
Feedback: Don't make me beg for it. Oh hell, whatever: pleeeease? Pretty please? It'll just take a sec from ya!  
  
Acknowledgments: Everyone who reviews and helps me. And my beta reader Starway Man. You rules, T!  
  
Author's Note: AU. This chapter is practically a rewrite of "Welcome To the Hellmouth" with some changes and characters mixed around along the way. This story will deviate more in the following chapters.  
  
Summary: For Buffy Summers, it took only a single glance to fall in love with the new student at Sunnydale High, Xander Harris. And with that look, she'd forever seal her fate as the Slayer.  
  
***  
  
Xander was walking down a dark street that night, having decided to go to the Bronze after making sure his younger brother was safe for the evening in their uncle's house; it was his unique idea of a place to search for Buffy, after the scene at the library earlier that day.  
  
But all of sudden, however, the teenager felt hit by the funny, insistent feeling that he was being followed.  
  
Walking forward and sending the occasional vigilant glance behind him, the Slayer took advantage of the chance to duck down an alley and looked around for a hiding spot. Nearby, a cat yowled and kicked some shattered cans in its way, and let Xander spy something above him.  
  
The mysterious figure approached slowly, walking into the alley with the smoothness of a hunting jungle-cat. When the stranger strolled underneath him Xander, who was in a handstand on a bar high above the pavement, enjoyed the opportunity to kick the unknown character in the back, knocking it to the ground.  
  
The dark-haired boy then positioned himself above the figure, setting a foot on its chest while noticing, with some surprise, the form of a very attractive girl underneath him.  
  
She looked maybe a couple of years older than him, and the raven-colored locks of slightly wavy hair fell around her pale skin to highlight her piercing dark eyes and scarlet lips. The black leather pants outlined her well-shaped body in all the right places, with a purplish-red silk tank-top and a black leather jacket to match.  
  
The brunette cocked a sly eyebrow at him. "A man who likes being on top, huh? Not very original, but I can work with that."  
  
Xander's resolve face never faltered. "Why were you following me?"  
  
The corners of the girl's lips twisted upwards just a bit, in a seductive way. "Don't worry, I don't bite. Unless you want me to..."  
  
Xander backed off and let her get up, still keeping his fighting stance though.  
  
The brunette stranger started to walk encircling him, and stopped to glance at the boy. "Truth is, thought you'd be more menacing-looking, and have bigger muscles and all that. You're kinda slim, but it's for damn sure you're pretty spry though. That was one sly move," she said, massaging her neck.  
  
"Hey! This shirt can be very misleading, and FYI, no girl I know has ever complained of any lack of muscles if you wanna..." Xander started defensively, but quickly stopped himself to ask more seriously, "What do you want?"  
  
Suddenly the girl's expression didn't contain any trace of amusement. "The same thing you do," she spoke meaningfully.  
  
They exchanged looks for a fleeting moment, and Xander at last let down his guard.  
  
"Okay, let's try that again. What do I want? So not the same thing you do, 'cause you're not talking about a scenario that involves a beach, Carmen Electra and a bikini being thrown into the ocean, is what I'm thinking," he smirked.  
  
The brunette stepped forward him, ignoring his sarcasm. "I want to kill them. To kill them all."  
  
Xander tried his best not to be disturbed by the attractive stranger's presence, pushing himself away from her. "Sorry, that's incorrect. But you do get this lovely watch and a year's supply of Turtle Wax. Look, what I want is to be left alone!"  
  
"Don't," she said severely and with a hint of madness, promptly stepping in front of the boy to stop him from leaving.  
  
The 16-year-old Slayer tried to shrug away the unsettling feeling of unease crawling along his insides, every time that beautiful-however-sinister stranger came close to him. "Are you trying to make me angry?"  
  
"Depends," she cocked a cool eyebrow. "Is it working?"  
  
Xander just stared at her for a moment, now utterly intrigued. "Just who are you?"  
  
Getting no answer, the Slayer started to walk away determinedly; but the brunette woman shouted behind him, "Do you really think walking away's an option anymore? You're standing on the mouth of Hell, and it's about to open!"  
  
Xander stopped and turned once again, looking at her with a wide-eyed gaze. The girl reached into her jacket, and took a small box from it.  
  
Tossing it to the dark-haired Slayer, the woman hinted darkly, "Want my advice? Don't turn your back on this. You've gotta be ready now, pal."  
  
Her words settled a disconcerting feeling inside him. "What for?"  
  
The reply was cryptic, however still meaningful. "The Harvest."  
  
Disconcerted, Xander glanced at the girl and asked once again, "Who are you?"  
  
"Let's just say... I'm a friend," she replied with an air of mystery, starting to leave.  
  
"Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend," the boy called out behind her.  
  
With a cool smirk on her lips, Faith turned back to him one last time and raised an eyebrow, before disappearing into the dark night of Sunnydale. "I didn't say I was yours, stud..."  
  
Xander stared after her for a moment and then opened the box, to find within it a small silver cross and a thin chain. He took it out and held it in his hand, sending another glance in the mysterious brunette girl's direction.  
  
***  
  
Gradually, a legion of teenagers arrived at their favorite hangout and met up, forming small circles near the entrance of the Bronze and in the club itself, as waiters and waitresses busily walked from one side to the other with the requested drinks.  
  
Xander absently passed a hand along the silver cross around his neck, hidden under his shirt, and gave the doorman the admission price before going into the club.  
  
The band was playing loudly while young bodies moved along the dance floor, some skillfully and others not so much, in accord with the earsplitting music's penetrating rhythm.  
  
/Oh, I just want to believe Can you hear me? Can you see me? What's inside of me? Oh, I just want to believe If my life can have a purpose Help me to believe/  
  
Xander spotted a pretty girl staring at him, sexily. After she waved in his direction he, with a silly grin, waved back. But noticing a guy behind him waving back as well, the Chosen One quickly pulled his hand down, embarrassed.  
  
/Everybody wants to find the circle The line of truth that has no end Because so many night I've slept with the feeling of empty And I say, right now I'm ready to believe/  
  
The dark-haired Slayer found the bar and ordered a soda, when the pretty brunette approached him. "Oooh, look who's here. Burn down any gymnasiums lately?" she hissed in a sugarcoated voice, with a saucy grin and foxy attitude to match.  
  
Xander grinned incredulously, at his unbelievable lack of luck tonight. "Cordelia. Is it just my imagination, or did you gain an extra pound since this afternoon?" At the girl's wide-eyed gaze at herself, he sarcastically added, mocking stupefaction, "Are you sure you didn't broke the bread-and- water diet today?"  
  
Cordelia clenched her perfect teeth and eyed him wildly and questioningly, in incredulity.  
  
The boy looked around uncertainly, appearing a bit creeped out, and frowned. "Wait a sec - Cor, that wasn't actually some kind of secret password or anything, was it? No secret cult of satanic purse-worshippers will come over, and suck my brains out or something?"  
  
Queen C rolled her eyes. "Aren't you gonna get up?"  
  
Xander stared at her in confusion. "Okay, I'll begin with a 'huh' and I'll follow that with a 'why'?"  
  
"Well, there's only one place here to sit, which you just took!" the 16- year-old brunette cheerleader explained in annoyance.  
  
"And?" the teenager asked, still honestly oblivious to what she was talking about.  
  
"And I'm a lady! You're supposed to get up, and offer me your seat. Did your parents forget to teach you any manners?" Cordy censured him in indignation, when suddenly a fragment of information she'd heard previously that day popped up in her mind. "Oh, that's right. They probably were too busy drinking in the nearest bar in LA, to do that..."  
  
The second Cordelia played that card, she felt a deep pang of regret hit her heart; but what was done was done, and Queen C knew she couldn't let herself falter at any time.  
  
Xander flinched at the crack, but quickly recovered and eyed the girl with more annoyance. He got up and gestured, "Is that all?"  
  
"No witty comebacks this time? Ooh, I hit a nerve," Cordelia bantered triumphantly. Soon afterwards though, the brunette girl sighed deeply and came to a very risky but doubtlessly worthy decision.  
  
Maybe it was a feeling of sentimental remorse, or perhaps that she had found the strength within her to try to help the fallen quarterback recover his coolness factor. Possibly it was also that Xander was the only good- looking guy she'd ever met that didn't fall down to worship at her feet, but mostly Cordelia knew it was damn well because of the mega-fine way he looked in those jeans.  
  
"Okay, it's like there's all these weird Mother Theresa vibes floating around right now - so what the heck, I'm willing to forget everything you did to me today. Um, what do you say - are we gonna be able to start over? I'll even let people see me with you, without seeming utterly annoyed at your presence," Cordy proposed sincerely, flashing a big smile of enjoyment to the passing-by teenagers, which the Slayer deduced to be her opposite of typical utter annoyance.  
  
Xander was amused and, deep down, even slightly tempted by the cheerleader's offer - but just as he was about to reply to the 'tempting' proposal, the boy looked up and noticed Giles on the upper level of the Bronze. And instantly, he became startled and suspicious with this occurrence.  
  
With a big grin, Cordelia raised a perfect eyebrow at him, thinking he had finally seen the light and already planning on what to wear for their first date the next evening. But, when she opened her mouth to talk, she was immediately cut off by a distracted Xander.  
  
"Um, you can have the seat, no problem. 'Scuse me, I'll be back in a minute," the Slayer absent-mindedly muttered and fled, leaving a flabbergasted Cordelia behind for the third time that day.  
  
"Cordelia, hi!" Lydia, one of the Cordettes with medium-length blonde hair, came towards her.  
  
Gasping in surprise at her friend's sudden appearance, the brunette girl turned around with a quick, perfectly faked grin and met the blond-haired teen head-on. "Lyd, hey! I was just doing the clean, if you know what I mean," Cordelia said looking intentionally at Xander, getting further away into the crowd.  
  
The blonde girl, clueless of the scene that had passed less than a minute before, smiled in comprehension. "Oh, yeah, Harmony filled me in. Such a shame, the case of that Alex guy - and can you say, a waste?"  
  
Feeling the intolerable humiliation of being abandoned three times, her reply was as prompt as it was disdainful. "So, you don't know yet? Hear this and try not to hurl - he calls himself 'Xander'," Cordy scoffed maliciously.  
  
Lydia burst out in hysterical laugh. "Xander? Gosh, what kind of name is that? I almost feel sorry for him! And the things Aura told me... it's like, who'll even try to talk to him now? I mean people that count, of course..."  
  
Cordelia bit her lip nervously for an instant, but still carried herself impeccably. "I know what you mean - almost. But, oh, why don't we move on, huh? Susan told me about that hunk of a hottie she saw you with, on Saturday. So I wanna know everything!"  
  
"Oh! Well, lemme begin with this: the parents have a yacht, an island, two houses in Europe *and* he has his own car!" Lydia started, and subsequently engaged in telling every little detail with a lot of excitement and a wide smile.  
  
Amidst the endless chatter though, Cordelia couldn't help popping her head up without her blonde friend noticing and looking around, trying to spot the maddening Xander Harris in the middle of the mob of teenagers.  
  
***  
  
Xander approached Giles. "So, you like to party with students. Isn't that kinda skanky?"  
  
The Watcher snorted, as he turned to his young charge. "Right, this is me having fun. Watching... clown hair prance about is hardly my idea of a party. I'd much rather be at home with a cup of Bovril, and a good book."  
  
"Wow. Man, you're really in need of getting a life, aren't you? Want my advice?" the teen offered.  
  
"Hardly," Giles replied, mostly to himself.  
  
"You need a personality, like right now. And the tweed look? That's only cool on the 'We-Don't-Have-Sex' planet," Xander said.  
  
The Englishman decided to ignore that. "This is a perfect breeding ground for vampire activity, you know. It's dark, it's crowded..." He then sighed at Xander's look, "I knew you were likely to show up, and despite your tenacious contentions I've got to make you understand..."  
  
"...that the Harvest is coming," the boy completed for him, and then informed the British guy, "I know, your lady friend told me that."  
  
Giles flinched. "What did you say?"  
  
"The Harvest. That ring any bells for you? 'Cause I'm drawing a big blank here," the dark-haired teen shrugged.  
  
The middle-aged Watcher furrowed his forehead. "I'm not sure. Uh... w-who told you this?"  
  
The Slayer looked at him curiously, a little surprised at the question. "This... girl. Definitely the kind you dream about riding you like a wild stallion - till you sorta burst like French champagne, right? But there was also these dark, sorta hardcore vibes about her too, I gotta add. Figured you two were buds."  
  
The Watcher sighed. It was no wonder, in his opinion, that most Slayers died so quickly - on account of young men like this, just couldn't help thinking with a piece of anatomy that was very far south of their brains. In fact, Giles had often wondered whether it would have been preferable to have a female Slayer to combat evil in the world, to avoid exactly this sort of situation.  
  
"No. The Harvest. What did she say?" Giles inquired, his features still and disquieting.  
  
"Something about the mouth of Hell," Xander said, and glanced at the older man. "Did I mention she creeps me out already?"  
  
"Implied it very plainly," Giles retorted absently, eyeing the scene unfolding beneath them, where the band had finished its set and the masses of youths were applauding vigorously.  
  
The Watcher leaned over the railing, and looked down at the crowd. "Look at them, throwing themselves about, completely unaware of the danger that surrounds them."  
  
"Lucky them," Xander instantly commented.  
  
"Or perhaps you're right. Perhaps there is no trouble coming, the signs could be wrong. It's not as though you've been having nightmares..."  
  
Xander gave him an immediate wide-eyed sideways glance and offered lamely, "Nightmares? Pfft. Only 'bout the powers that be canceling Baywatch next year - oh, and there's also this very creepy one about Martha Stewart, a pair of tongs and colorful little drinks with those cool mini-umbrellas," the boy shivered uncontrollably at that.  
  
Under his Watcher's gaze, Xander promptly changed the subject. "Look, let's get something straight. I know you've got a job to do, and heck - I didn't say I'd never slay another vampire. It's not like I've got these fluffy bunny feelings for them, I'm just not gonna get way extracurricular with it. You know, if I see one, sure I'll..."  
  
Giles cut him off gravely, "Will you be ready? There's so much you don't know about them, about your own powers. And vampires appear to be completely normal until the feed is upon them, only then do their reveal their true demonic visage."  
  
"You're like a big textbook with arms, legs and an accent, I know this," Xander informed him with a sigh.  
  
"The point is, a Slayer should be able to sense them anyway. Without looking, without thinking. Can you tell me if there's a vampire in this building?" Giles inquired matter-of-factly.  
  
"Well, of course," the dark-haired boy replied unconvincingly, but rapidly added in admittance, "Maybe..."  
  
"You should know," the Englishman broke in sharply. "Even through this mass and this... din, you should be able to sense them. Well, try! Reach out your mind."  
  
Xander looked around vigilantly as Giles continued the instruction, "You have to hone your senses, focus until the energy washes over you, you feel every particle o-of..."  
  
"There's one," the boy interrupted him.  
  
Giles faced him in surprise. "W-where?"  
  
"Right there, talking to that girl," the Slayer indicated towards the menace with a nod of his head.  
  
"B-but you don't know..." the middle-aged British man stammered.  
  
"Ah, come on! Really, look at the guy for a second. He's got a leather duster, spiky belt - and what's up with the hair anyway? Deal with the all- Billy Idol look, here."  
  
Giles glanced at the referred threat. "You're saying it's dated?"  
  
"Carbon dated. C'mon, only someone living underground for ten years would not know that there's a good reason why people say the 80's are dead and buried," Xander said pointedly.  
  
"But you didn't... hone," something about this fact seemed to worry Giles.  
  
"You know what, G-man? You're getting just a little too hung up over the whole honing thing. Sometimes, ya just have to relax and... oh, crap," Xander cut himself off, noticing the girl who the vampire was talking to with an abrupt pang of apprehension.  
  
"Ah, I think I'd absolutely prefer to be called Mr. Giles, if you don't mi... what?" the Watcher started to say with a twinge of irritation, but then trailed off to investigate the Slayer's sudden alarm.  
  
Eyeing the crowd immediately, Giles was surprised by the same realization that had hit Xander seconds earlier. "Isn't that..."  
  
"Buffy Summers," Xander replied sharply.  
  
"What's she doing?" the Watcher inquired with a hint of anxiety.  
  
The dark-haired Slayer narrowed his eyes once again as the vampire that called himself Spike took Buffy by the hand, and started to lead her outside the club with a cool smirk, a seductive look and a black leather duster hanging around the petite girl's shoulders.  
  
"Research on a theory she heard earlier today," Xander hurriedly replied, and added, before speeding down to go to Buffy's rescue, "And she's ready to move on to the practical stage right now, but she doesn't quite know it yet."  
  
***  
  
AN: So Faith's the souled vampire. Well, thing is, I'm really twisting the Buffyverse to Jane's way, and, oh well, AUs can be pretty moldable... But she's not taking Darla's or Dru's place, she has a completely different story.  
  
And to finish... an invocation :) Please, pretty please, let me a review! It'll only take a sec from you, but a world of yays to me and this fic to be updated faster! 


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